You Should Be Dead
by babydragon11
Summary: Dash and Kwan are horrified to discover they've accidentally killed their classmate, but perhaps even more so when he shows up at school the next day unscathed. In the following uncontrollable events, Danny's well-preserved secret isn't the only thing at risk.
1. The Docks

**Warning: this is a torture fic (sorry, Danny!). Dash and Kwan introduce the story, but when they're done, it will mostly be from Danny's POV. This should be the only chapter with mild language, so the rating is mostly for violence/gore.  
Also, this is my first fic! I'll write a few chapters to get into the idea of the story, which should have some juicy twists, but I'll leave it up to you all if you want me to continue!**

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The Docks

"Dude, leave some for me!"

"I'm not gonna finish it!" Dash took one last big gulp before passing the large tequila bottle over to Kwan. "Here, you can have th' rest. Can't drin' too much... School t'morrow."

Kwan signed as he took the bottle and held it up to the moonlight only to be disappointed to find so little left. Why should he have to pay for half if Dash drank it all anyway? He shrugged and took a swig. At least he wouldn't be as hung over as Dash in the morning. They had English first thing and Lancer could always tell if they'd been drinking hard the night before. Lancer wouldn't turn them in, but being Casper High's star football players didn't totally exclude them from a stern talking-to.

He took another gulp anyway, finishing off the last of the liquor, then slid off the concrete ledge, turned, and threw the bottle into the harbor, smiling proudly when it made splashdown at quite a distance. They found the abandoned pier a good place to drink – and the occasional smoke, if they had the money – without fear of prying eyes. No one came here knowing this was that box-crazed ghost's favorite haunt.

"Wha' was 'at?" Dash jumped off the ledge in a clumsy panic before Kwan could hop back on.

"I just threw the bottle, Dash. Chill out."

"I know tha', dumbass. I mean I 'eard somethin' comin' from th' warehouse." He gestured toward one of the large buildings about 500 feet down the pier.

Kwan listened for a moment before saying, "You're drunk, man. There's no one—"

"Shh!"

Silence. Then a crash, like something had been thrown against the wall, accompanied by faint green flashes of light coming from the buildings' high windows.

"See!" Dash whispered. He made to walk stealthily toward the warehouse, pulling something from his jacket Kwan guessed was his cell phone, but couldn't make it out in the dark. "Let's check it out," he said without looking back.

"Dude!" Kwan tried to grab him back, but Dash jerked out of his grasp and jogged forward. "Damn it," he whispered, following after him.

Dash stopped some feet from the building to listen while Kwan caught up. A quick succession of four or five bangs sounded from inside, this time followed by a barely audible yell. The windows were too high and they too close to see any green light.

"C'mon, I bet it's tha' stupid boxy ghost," Dash whispered with a grin before sprinting the last few feet to the door. He paused a moment to note door was already ajar, the lock having been broken years ago.

Kwan didn't follow this time. He wasn't drunk enough not to realize how stupid this was. He looked back in the direction they'd come and in the sky toward town. If there was a ghost in there, shouldn't Danny Phantom be here? Even though he'd been around for over three years now, some parts of the town still thought he was a menace, but Kwan knew differently. Phantom had saved the town enough times to know that wasn't true. He'd even gotten to see Phantom up close a few times. The number of attacks on school grounds seemed to have increased over the past few months – something the news channels confirmed. There's usually a lot of damage done before Phantom shows up, but at least he always does.

Kwan looked back at the warehouse just in time to see Dash slip inside.

However, as the jock went in, he was too out of it to make sure he did so quietly. The door swung wide, making a creaking noise that echoed loudly in the empty warehouse. Immediately, Kwan saw green light radiate through the high windows, followed by a scream and a sharp, earsplitting bang.

Kwan jumped back, eyes wide.

"Dash!" he yelled, running to find his friend, no longer caring about the danger. He found him standing stock still just inside the door. "Holy shit, are you okay?" Kwan shook him. Something clattered to the floor near him, but Dash didn't move.

Kwan tried looking around inside the building for the ghost that could've made the noise and light. Nothing but black. "Dude, answer me!" he yelled again while digging out his phone to open his flashlight app.

The light seemed to shake Dash from his stupor. "Shit," he breathed, suddenly feeling somewhat sober.

"What the hell happened?" Kwan yelled, nervously pointing his flashlight at the other side of the room. He saw dozens of crates, but the room was too large to make out anything else.

"There was something there!" Dash hissed quietly, insinuating that Kwan should stop yelling. "It turned and powered up this crazy bright ecto-whatever at me, so I – shit! Point your phone at the ground."

Kwan shined his camera flash at their feet and moved it around until the light fell upon a small pistol.

"So you _shot _it?" Kwan spewed back while Dash carefully picked up the weapon. "Are you fucking crazy? What'd you bring a gun for, anyway?" Kwan paused for a moment as he realized something. "And what makes you think that a bullet is going to hurt a ghost?" he whispered. He turned slowly, shining his light at the other end of the building once again.

"I dunno, I just – but the light when out. It fell…I think." Dash crept passed Kwan, eyes trained at the spot he last saw the thing that nearly killed him.

"Dash, no! Seriously, we gotta get outta here. Dash—"

"Kwan," Dash deadpanned. "Kwan, get over here."

Kwan slowly joined his friend's side. There, bathed in light lay a body covered in blood that oozed from a chest wound. The fluid had already turned his white shirt red while the blood on the floor worked on staining his jeans and sticking to his black hair. His blue eyes were open and glazed over.

"Oh my God," Kwan said. "That's…"

"Fenton," Dash finished. "I killed Fenton."

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**I'm disappointed by the short length, but I had to end here...hehe...  
Worth continuing? Please review!**


	2. Impossible

**Guys, I cried. NINETEEN reviews, 24 follows, 14 favs and over 350 views?! I never dreamed I'd get this huge a response for the first 1000 words of my first story! Thank you so all so much! Your reviews were deeply loved and cared for - my roommate had a blast watching me dance around the house each time a new one came in! Hopefully I've addressed everything with this chapter, as it was very much inspired by your kind words. Enjoy!**

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Uploaded 6/11/13

**Chapter 2**

Dash couldn't sleep. How could he? Each time he closed his eyes, he saw Fenton's cold, dead ones staring back, causing him to shiver and wretch his eyes open again. No, he'd rather wait for morning the long way.

He should never have brought his dad's gun. But, several weeks ago, he and Kwan had met a group of high school drop-outs about a mile out from docks to buy alcohol, as usual. They were old friends of Dash's, so it was cheaper to buy from them than to get fake IDs. This time, however, they were also met buy an older dude they'd never seen before. He tried to charge Dash and Kwan triple! One thing led to another and, well… the guy knew how to throw a punch.

Needless to say, he and Kwan forked over the money for fake IDs. Since they couldn't think of a better hang out and the meeting place had been far enough away, they continued to go the docks, but Dash brought the gun just in case. It seemed like an overreaction now that he thought back on it after what just happened, but at the time, he couldn't stand the thought of being the wimp receiving the beating; that was Fenton's place.

Fenton…

"Damn it," Dash whispered, digging his palms into his eyelids in attempt to block the images that flared to the forefront of his mind as well as any tears. He shouldn't think ill of the dead given the nature of this ghost-ridden town. Fenton could come back to haunt him! His death was violent enough…

Dash quickly flipped over in his bed and buried his face into a pillow with a whiny groan.

Even worse, he'd just left Fenton to lie there in his own blood. He'd panicked! If anyone found out he'd shot the dweeb…the kid…no one would believe it was just an accident. He beat Fenton up at school every day! And he'd been drinking underage. A lot. The cops would think he killed the kid in a violent, drunken rage or something. Not to mention Fenton was out there alone. If no one confirmed why he was in that warehouse, it'd look like kidnapping, which would turn into premeditated murder! He was no longer worried about losing his football scholarship with FSU. If he was tried as an adult, he'd go to prison for the rest of his life. And that was if he got off easy!

The jock flipped over on his back again, digging his palms into his temples this time.

That was why he had to run. He'd chucked the gun way out into the harbor and booked it on foot back to town with Kwan not far behind. The docks were secluded, but he wasn't going to chance getting caught if someone came to investigate the gunshot. When he and Kwan paused for breath in the park, Dash pointed out that Kwan had just as much to lose if he was charged as an accomplice. So they agreed to go to school tomorrow and pretend that whole nightmare never happened.

He just wanted it to be morning already. Maybe then he could forget.

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Dash found Kwan by his locker also looking like he hadn't slept all night.

"I didn't hear anything on the radio," Dash announced in a hushed tone. He couldn't believe his luck, but he guessed the inevitable announcement of Fenton's disappearance – or worse, his found body – would eventually become news. He dreaded that day, but he supposed the sooner it came, the sooner it would pass… at least he hoped it would.

Kwan turned to meet him as he closed his locker door. "Dude, I can't take this anymore and I just got here!" he whispered, then glanced behind him.

Dash peeked over Kwan's shoulder. The goth-girl and the techno-geek stood by Fenton's locker talking to each other in lowered voices and sort of leaning over to peer down the halls. The girl, Manson, was running her fingers through her hair, frowning and talking quickly while the guy, Foley, was making hand gestures and moving his shoulders like he was trying to calm her down. Dash didn't have to be a genius to know what they were talking about.

Manson and Foley lowered their arms and straightened with anticipation when Fenton's sister suddenly joined them.

"Please tell me he stayed with one of you last night," he overheard Jazz say.

Dash quickly looked away before he could see their reactions and began to open his locker next to Kwan's so he couldn't hear their replies, either. Kwan was right: he really didn't want to be here.

The bell rang, giving Dash and Kwan an excuse to go to English, books in hand, without talking to the other A-listers. The quarterback wasn't exactly in the mood to show off his status by stuffing freshman into lockers today. That didn't necessarily mean he wanted to go to class, though. Not only were Manson and Foley in there, but so was Fenton's empty seat.

Dash lowered himself in his chair and swallowed the lump in his throat. His heart sank to his stomach as he watched Fenton's friends also acknowledge the empty desk.

Lancer's lectures always seemed to send Dash to sleep. This time he welcomed it, deciding to take advantage of anything that could make the day go by a little faster. He roughly propped his head up with the heel of his hand and wedged his elbow into the crack of his open textbook so that he could at least pretend to pay attention as his eyes drifted closed.

Dash figured he had just about fallen asleep when the door burst open, sending a jolt through his shoulders and dislodging his head from its perch.

"Sorry, I overslept!"

Dash drowsily made to rebuild he sleep position.

"Just take a seat, Mr. Fenton."

What? Dash jolted awake so violently he lifted three desk legs off the floor and dragged the last one with a loud scrape before he and desk crashed back to Earth, now crooked in the row.

"Baxter!"

"Sorry, Mr. Lancer. Uh…l-leg cramped," he scrambled.

The teacher just sighed. "At least straighten up," he said.

Dash twisted around to shimmy he desk back into place again only to catch Kwan's wide, terrified eyes fixed across the room. He quickly followed his gaze.

Sure enough, Danny Fenton made his way to his seat, mouthing a "Sorry" to his friends before he turned, slung his backpack to the floor, and plopped into his desk in one nearly-smooth motion.

Impossible.

Dash's jaw fell open and his stomach somersaulted like he was going to be sick, but he kept it down. He glanced back, sharing a mirrored look of shock with Kwan before he quickly flicked his desk straight.

Dash hardened his jaw and lowered his shoulders. He quickly reminded himself he couldn't afford to show surprise by this. There was nothing abnormal with Fenton bounding into class late. In fact, it'd be abnormal if he hadn't. Just…not today.

Keeping his head fixed forward, Dash cut his gaze over to Fenton. He was out of breath, his hair was soaking wet and maybe his skin a little paler than usual if he really looked, but otherwise he was perfectly fine.

For a moment, Dash allowed himself to be relieved. The nightmare was over already. No consequence. No harm done. Fenton was fine! Maybe he had been so wasted last night that he'd imagined the whole thing. Obviously if Fenton had really been there he would've reported Dash to the police. Yet, the dweeb hadn't given him so much as a glance since he sat down. Hell, if he'd really been shot in the chest, Fenton would be in the ICU right now, not taking notes on _The Great Gatsby_!

But some things were wrong here. If Dash had imagined it, how did Kwan remember? He was shocked by Fenton's appearance first just now and, admittedly, not nearly as drunk last night. Now, his memory was fuzzy and understandably full of doubts at the moment… but he'd been _sure_ Fenton was dead. Those unmoving eyes had haunted him for the remainder of the night! Not mention all that blood…

Suddenly, Dash was furious. Was this some sort of sick prank? Did that goth freak friend of Fenton's arrange all this to get back at him for all those times the jocks stuffed him into his locker?

He needed to drag Kwan back to the warehouse while the sun was still up.

Fenton should be dead.

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**That's it! Kwan and Dash have had their say. Danny takes over next chap!**

**Sorry, I wish these chapters were longer, but I think this length will help me get them out faster and I find the breaks here hold power ;D **

**Please review! I loves them like sorbet! 3**


	3. Waking Up

Uploaded 6/22/13

Waking Up

Danny felt nothing.

He tried to think, but couldn't. His thoughts seemed to be missing, as if he was so deeply entranced that he'd forgotten…everything. Weren't there other things out there? Shouldn't he be able to see, touch, or hear…he didn't even know. Maybe he could before, but—

Wait. Before what?

Danny struggled. This wasn't right; something – everything– was missing! He fought to organize his thoughts – to remember what he'd forgotten.

He barely recognized the sense of passing time return to him as he became aware of heaviness, like a force was pressing down on him. Then, everything came back almost at once. With a searing pulse, sensation radiated outward with a feeling like being slammed into a parking lot from ten stories up. The pain left as quickly as it had come except in his center – his chest – which began to intensify exponentially. Why—

His lungs!

Breathe!

Danny gasped. His back arched and tears sprang to his dry eyes before he squeezed them shut in attempt to fight the pain. His muscles contracted, causing his limbs to flail until he finished his breath and they received proper oxygen. He racked a deep, shuddered cough on the exhale and greedily took another short breath before he'd finished.

As the coughing subsided, Danny lay there focusing only on the rising and falling of his chest for several minutes. He shivered. Reality slowly came back to him as he gained control of his breathing and his rapid heartbeat began to slow.

Had…had he seriously stopped breathing for a moment? Danny took an especially deep, reassuring breath. He hoped this wasn't some new ghost-half-related side effect that would occur every time he fell asleep. The hero shuddered at the thought.

Hold on.

The shudder turned into another sloppy shiver. He was definitely human… so, why was he cold?

Danny blinked his eyes open until they became accustomed to the light he found to be streaming in through 30-foot-high windows. Ah, he was still in the warehouse. He must've accidently passed out last night. Sam was going to be pissed; he'd promised never to do that again.

Judging by the angle of the light beams, it was still early. There was a chance he could still make it to first period if he hurried. The sooner Sam, Jazz, and Tucker knew he was okay, the better for his health.

Danny sat up using his elbows for support. He found his muscles were stiff, but he was quickly warming up and feeling more comfortable by the minute. Except…Why did he feel so…sticky? His hand slipped when he tried to sit up further, so he looked down, immediately paling at the sight.

His shirt was completely soaked with blood.

"Gah!" Danny bolted up, tapping into his ghost powers for the extra vertical assist. In the same motion, he grabbed his collar and phased the fabric off his torso, throwing it to the ground as if it were deceased.

That was when he saw his arms – and then the floor – also covered in dried blood.

Danny stumbled back several feet, eyes wide. It wasn't the sight of blood that surprised him; he'd been injured by ghosts too many times for it to bother him now. No, it was the sheer _amount_ of blood coupled with the fact that…he didn't remember how this could have happened.

Attempting to shake off his initial shock, Danny checked himself over. Other than a dull ache in his chest, which was understandable and healing quickly, he felt fine. He looked down at his torso again. It was indistinguishably smeared with dry blood. Reluctantly, he rubbed his hand over it. Odd, he didn't feel any wounds, either.

Danny shook his head. He was going to be late; there was no time for this! Get to school first, and then figure out what the heck happened last night.

Just as he'd started to feel warm again, Danny pivoted on the spot as he released his cold core, triggering his transformation into Phantom before soaring up through the roof of the building in the direction of home. He was thankful for his clean suit, but if he flew straight to school and changed back into Fenton, his human half would still be a bloody mess.

It didn't take but a few minutes before Danny phased through his bedroom window and listened. As assumed, there came no sound from his parents. They had been working fervently on some super-secret project in the lab two floors below for a few weeks now; he doubted they had even realized he never came home last night. Feeling a pang of sadness at the thought, he quickly realized this was a good thing. In spite of the majority of the town's approval of his ghost half, he wasn't ready to tell his parents his secret until they accepted Phantom themselves. Knowing their still-bitter distaste for him, he was grateful. They couldn't be suspicious if they were too busy to notice.

Danny gathered a set of fresh clothes from his closet, then phased through the wall and into the bathroom down the hall. Only after he locked the door, placed the clean clothes on the counter and touched down in the shower did he change back into his human form.

Once again dripping with blood, Danny undressed and quickly washed himself clean. He rinsed the soiled clothes under the water as well, frowning at the too-red hue it turned the water.

This much blood—where could it have come from? He still felt fine, so how could it be his?

Had he hurt someone last night?

Danny blanched, shutting off the water and flicking intangible immediately after. No. He would never allow that to happen. And—if he did—he'd certainly remember.

As Danny threw on the fresh clothes, he looked back in the shower at the soaked jeans and tennis shoes still stubbornly clinging to blood deep in the fabric. Maybe if his parents ever took a break from the lab he could sneak down with a sample and check it under one of their microscopes.

Back around the time he'd first gotten his powers, he, Sam and Tucker had discovered that if Danny put a speck of his human blood on a slide and he gave it a small ecto-charge they could see the blood platelets carry the green charge across the sample, adopting a brief green hue before disappearing and returning to normal. But, when he charged Sam's blood, the charge made the platelets shake violently and look a little sickly afterwards. Knowing this, he'd be able to tell if the blood on his clothes was his or not.

Danny looked in the mirror and fluffed his still-wet hair. He didn't like to make his hair dry through intangibility; the hairs just got all frizzy and it was easier to sell to Lancer that he woke up late if he indeed looked like he had just gotten out of the shower.

Grabbing his clothes and phasing them dry as well, Danny was just about to fly silently back to his room when he caught something in the bathroom mirror—or rather, a lack of something.

The scar on his right forearm where Skulker had sliced him before he'd had a chance to go ghost—it was gone!

"What?" Danny whispered aloud slowly. Clothes still in his arms, he spun around and flung his left foot up on the counter so he could look at his calf. When Vlad had thrown him into a building after turning back, a piece of broken rebar had found its way into his leg which later created the largest scar in his collection…and it wasn't there.

Danny flicked his foot to the ground and immediately leaned as close to the mirror as he could, given the bundle in his arms. His skin was flawless. It seemed every scar he'd ever gotten—even the faint one next to his left eye he'd gotten as a baby—had disappeared!

"I am…so confused," he forced out as if the universe would hear him and provide some sort of answer.

Danny's dumbfounded staring contest with the mirror only broke when he heard indiscernible noises coming from the kitchen downstairs. The sudden scare that his parents were home and he wasn't in school spiked his adrenaline. In seconds, he stealthily flew through the walls back to his room, tossed the stained clothes in his hamper (minus the tennis shoes which he stuffed back on his feet over clean socks), slung his backpack over his shoulder and transformed into his ghost half before flying out the window.

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**I sincerely hope this was worth the wait! I had Calculus 3 and University Physics 2 exams to survive...those of you wanting to be engineers: you have no idea the kind of math that awaits you DX**

**Although, it did allow me time to...um... actually ****_plot_**** this story heheh ^^; BUT I now have a plot I think you guys will love with concepts I have been dying to introduce!**

**I think there was a pun in there somewhere ;D**

**Confusions? Predictions? Please review! I'M GONNA EAT SHERBET AND WAIT FOR THEM! :D**


	4. Remember

Uploaded 6/27/13

Remember

"Okay," Sam huffed, threatening to lose what little patience she still had. Danny had refused to explain himself through notes in class, insisting he wait until lunch to share. So here she was, joined by Danny and Tucker at the trio's special picnic table reserved for lunch conversations that they couldn't risk being overheard.

"Spill it. Where the _hell_ where you, Danny?" she hissed.

Danny looked down at his food, pushing peas with his fork. He knew this was coming and that the worst thing he could do was make an excuse, so he settled on apologizing first. "Sam, I'm sor—"

"You're sorry?" Sam slammed her fist on the table, causing Danny to flinch. "I must've called you over a dozen times last night! Then you didn't meet us before class and— Have you let Jazz know you're okay? She drove all the way here just to ask me and Tucker if—"

"Sam, please! I'm sorry!" Danny finally looked up to meet her eyes, relaying his guilt with such a helpless expression she couldn't help but accept his apology.

Sam sighed, releasing her anger. "You can't keep doing this, Danny. You can't just disappear and not tell anyone." She paused, looked down at her salad and whispered as a reluctant afterthought, "I'm so afraid that one day... one day you won't come back at all." She tried to meet Danny's gaze again, but he was staring at his food again as well.

"I know," Danny breathed. He knew his friends and sister worried when he didn't make it home because, excuse or not, they had every right to be upset. If Sam went missing overnight, Danny knew he'd be pretty upset, too.

After a brief moment of silence, Tucker coughed. Now that Sam had calmed down, he felt it safe to enter the conversation. "So, dude, you never said. What happened last night?"

Danny squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head down to rub a hand behind his neck. That was a really good question. How could he explain to his friends what he didn't understand himself? He took a deep breath. Good to know he hadn't forgotten to do that again.

When Danny didn't respond, Sam wondered aloud, "This is more than just passing out in some alley and forgetting to call, isn't it?"

Danny straightened and shook his head. "Guys, I don't _know_ what happened last night," he said, exasperated.

Sam and Tucker shared a look. "Well," Tucker supplied, "start from the beginning. Who were you fighting last night?"

"That's just it. My patrol came up clean; there weren't any ghosts out! So I found one of those old warehouses by the docks to…um…practice and—"

"Hold on," Sam interrupted him in disbelief. "You were training?"

Tucker laughed at the notion and also to lighten the mood. "Man, if your ghost half gets any more powerful, your parents are going to have to make a new scale! Isn't Phantom already in the nines?"

"C'mon, I'm not that strong," Danny said with a growing smile. He flicked a dime-sized ice crystal at Tucker's forehead when he responded with a snort.

"Ow!"

"Actually," Danny continued, "Phantom wasn't the one training. Fenton was."

Sam dropped her shoulders and made to retort.

"And before you say anything," Danny said quickly, "I've been practicing my powers with my human half for emergencies. You know, just in case I don't have enough time to change. I can switch forms pretty fast, but that's still an extra step someone who needs my help might not have time for."

"That's really noble and all, Danny," Sam said, "but this is revealing your secret we're talking about."

Danny opened his mouth, but Tucker spoke for him, "Not necessarily. I mean, not entirely, anyway. Worst case scenario—if you had to use your powers as Fenton—you would only be revealing that you had _some_ ghost powers. Granted that's still pretty bad, your half-ghost status and Phantom identity could still be kept secret."

"Exactly," Danny agreed, relieved that at least one of his friends understood. "I could say I must've gotten ghost powers from," he waved his arms, taking a guess, "I don't know, being around my parents' experiments for so many years without a hazmat suit."

Sam thinned her lips in disapproval.

"Okay, all I'm saying is: I'm training for an emergency. I'm not saying I'm revealing any part of my secret any time soon," Danny reassured.

"Right," Sam stated, dismissing the topic, "but you still haven't explained how training in your human form leads to—what?—spending the night in the warehouse?

Whatever good mood Danny had gained left him in a rush. "Maybe?" he drawled out sheepishly. He suddenly wanted more than anything to keep what little he knew to himself, but now there was no way his friends were going to let this go.

And there was a familiar part of him that knew he needed their help.

Sam groaned. "Damn it, Danny! Enough stalling!"

"Why's is so hard to say you woke up in a warehouse? Did someone see you?" Tucker questioned.

"No," Danny said, thinking for a beat. "No, no one saw me. But I woke up…," he shifted his eyes and gathered his courage before restarting in a whisper, "I woke up soaked in b-blood."

"What!" Sam screamed, "How? Are you okay?"

"I don't know!" Danny attempted to explain. "I mean, I'm fine," he said shaking his head. Desperate to keep Sam calm, he hastily added, "In fact, there isn't a scratch on me!" and brought up his forearm for his friends to see.

"Hey, isn't that where Skulker—," Tucker started.

"Yes," Danny interjected, "and every other scar I've ever gotten is gone, too!"

Sam couldn't stop herself. "Oh my God, I am so jealous."

"Wait, I'm confused," Tucker said. "Are you saying you just passed out practicing and then woke up scar-free and covered in blood?"

Danny groaned, leaning his head down and stuffing his hands into his hair which had dried by now. The hairs in the back still felt grimy; he shuddered to think there might still be blood in it. Instead, he thought hard about the night before.

"Okay, well, I don't exactly remember passing out," Danny said, trying to concentrate. "I was working on charging ecto-blasts. Invisibility, intangibility, and cytokinesis are easy enough, but I can only fire off about five ecto-blasts at a time before they start burning my hands." He looked down at his palms, half-expecting to see the evidence. Of course they were completely smooth, so he tossed them frustratingly and got back to his point. "The next thing I know it's morning, and I'm gasping for air and freaking out because my shirt is…," Danny paled. "Oh, no."

"What? Do you remember what happened?" Sam asked expectantly.

"My shirt," Danny said slowly, not having heard her. "It's still at the warehouse. Oh crap! What if someone finds it?" He tried to jump up but Sam grabbed his arm before he could escape.

"Whoa, you're not going anywhere!"

"Sam's right," Tucker said. "Your shirt will still be in the _abandoned_ warehouse after school and you can't afford to miss any more classes. We'll go with you – see if we can help you figure out what happened. Besides," Tucker chuckled, "don't you want to stay here and watch Dash and Kwan freak out some more?" He twisted around to see the duo sitting distractedly at the A-list table across the yard.

"Yeah, what has gotten into them?" Sam thought, finally gathering salad onto her fork. "They're kind of…jumpy today."

Danny leaned over to get a glimpse of the jocks just in time to see Dash look up and send Danny one of his signature death glares.

"I don't know," Danny said with a shrug, "Dash looks like his usual self to me."

Tucker took a large bite of his sloppy joe and said between mouthfuls, "Maybe they saw a ghost." He swallowed and continued, "Dude, I bet if you snuck up invisibly and gave 'em a little tap on the shoulder, they'd—,"

Sam smacked Tucker upside the head.

"Ow, Sam!"

"Don't encourage Danny to abuse his powers."

"You two are so violent! How am supposed to be the brains of the operation if you keep hitting me in the head? Danny, control your girlfriend!"

Sam smacked him again. "We're not a couple!" she said as she cut her eyes over to Danny for backup.

Unfortunately for Sam, Danny wasn't paying any attention to his friends' antics. He was still looking at Dash, who was now in deep conversation with Kwan. He didn't understand why, but Danny had developed a bad feeling in his stomach at the sight. The two jocks were being too reclusive, which wasn't typical of them during lunch hour.

It was when the friends simultaneously looked up at him and then continued their conversation that Danny felt dread stab him in the chest. Where they talking about him?

He quickly looked down at his uneaten food. They were probably just planning his next public humiliation. Some things never changed.

The thought, though oddly reassuring, didn't shake Danny's feeling completely. Something happened last night – something bad he couldn't remember, and he knew his uneasiness wouldn't leave him until he figured out exactly what happened in that warehouse.

* * *

**Thank you all so much for your reviews! Your thoughts and predictions are ****_so_**** helpful - send me MORE! If your questions haven't been answered yet, don't worry they will be! I was hoping to answer them all in this chapter, but it grew to an...acceptable length, so I'm splitting them up - I hope you don't mind!**

**Was my characterization okay? Predictions? Discontinuities? Please review! ...I'm running out of sherbet :(**


	5. Unexpected

**Sorry For The lateness And Any Errors! My Comp Was Killed In A Power Surge, Then MY Big Beatiful New One Died the Same Way After Only A Day! Then I had Midterms... It Was Sad :( I Typed Half Of This Chapter At The Campus librarY. Today iT's Closed, But I Wanted To Post, so I Emailed It To My Tablet And Finished It There, Then It Wouldnt Paste, So I Emailed It To My Phone, WhicH Is For Some Reason Is Capitalizing letters By Itself! DX**

Pleas**e Review And I Hope You Enjoy! **

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Uploaded 7/13/1

Unexpected

Danny wasted no time in flying his friends invisibly to the warehouse after school. Since lunch when he remembered he'd left his bloody shirt there, he hadn't been able to concentrate on anything else. And everyone knows being distracted at school means the clocks move slower. It's just basic physics.

"Hey, can you –um— slow down a bit, Danny?" Tucker squeaked.

"Sorry," Danny said as he slowed back down. "Guess I'm just an anxious."

"Jeez, Tuck, one would think you'd be used to this by now," Sam teased, her invisible smile reaching her voice.

Tucker squirmed in the grasp of Danny left arm. "I am! It's just: this ride isn't meant for two… no offense, Danny."

"None taken," the ghost boy quickly assured. "I know you guys prefer to walk; I just really wanted to get here as soon as possible. Speaking of," Danny slowed to a hover over the warehouse roof. A quick glance assured him that no one was around. No people in uniform, no flashing vehicles. He was safe, which should have been a huge relief but... he still felt nervous.

"Promise me you guys won't freak out, okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Don't worry, we're here to help!" Sam said quickly, feeling his hesitation. "Now phase us in, already!"

"Hey, no need to be rude," Danny berated, squeezing her jokingly.

"Said the puppy to the wolverine," Tucker whispered.

"What did you just say, Foley?" Sam flared.

"Please children, no fighting until we land," Danny laughed. Having gathered the courage he needed to lower them into the building thanks to his friends, he followed through and drifted down.

The ghost boy set his friends down gently on the floor, returning them to the visual plane and then turning human. Despite the afternoon sun, the absence of his ghostly glow cast the building into semidarkness. The trio could just barely make out a few dozen scattered crates in a room only slightly smaller in size than a football field, but nothing more.

After a thought, Danny formed a small, bright ecto-blast in the palm of his right hand, and then used his left to quickly surround it with ice. "Here," he supplied, holding up the makeshift lantern for his friends' approval. "At least now we can see."

"Dude!" Tucker exclaimed, staring at the teal-colored ball in fascinated awe. "Wait,it's not going to explode, right?" he asked, suddenly apprehensive.

"I thought you couldn't use two powers at once like that, especially in your human form." Sam wondered, impressed.

"Like I said: practicing," Danny beamed matter-of-factly. "Now let's just find my shirt and get out of here," he said, stepping forward while trying to remember where he'd woken up this morning.

"And don't forget we need to figure out what happened, too," Sam reminded, taking the lead at the edge of the light.

"Sam, wait!" Danny panicked, moving to catch up. He knew she was eager to help him figure out this mystery, and he was very grateful, but he also knew that if she found—

"Oh my God!"

Too late.

Sam covered her mouth, attempting to process the gruesome scene before her without panicking. Danny hadn't exaggerated; in fact, he couldn't have. The pool of blood was easily five feet across. Patches of concrete shown through in places where Sam guessed Danny's shoulder blades, head, and other parts of his body had pressed flat against the floor, blocking flows of blood. She could also see splatters, shoe prints and smears that told a story of how Danny must've tried to get up.

As Danny slowly approached Sam, the light he held bathed the floor in more light. The blood shined, telling her there was so much of it that even after all this time it still hadn't dried completely.

As the globe's light reached across the blood, Sam spotted Danny's shirt on the other side. Careful not to step in the crimson mess, she skirted over and crouched down to pick it up. Her eyes widened when she saw the shirt wasn't sitting in blood and yet was absolutely soaked with it. Unable to find a large enough spot of white, Sam settled on grabbing a spot of slightly dry red and slowly lifted the shirt off the ground, trying to keep calm as she stood to face her friends.

"How is this possible?" she asked. Sam knew Danny was fine now, but, "For there to be this much…" she stressed as her throat became raw, "this had to have come from you." Saying the thought aloud made Sam feel dizzy. How much pain must her best friend have been in to lose this much blood?

Danny massaged the back of his neck with his free hand. "But that doesn't make any sense! I mean I'm not—," he slid his hand to feel for a pulse under his ear and continued, "I'm fine! I'm still fine! I don't feel any different or anything!" He weakly gestured toward the blood pool and said in defeat, "And yet I woke up lying in...this." He groaned.

Tucker moved from behind Danny, taking a few steps forward to peer into the pool. "As much as this seriously grosses me out, bring the light over here. I think I saw something."

"What?" Danny joined his friend at the edge and held the light over the pool. Something small that wasn't coagulated blood glimmered in the center.

They stared a moment until realization hit Sam. "It can't be," she said definitively and took a few steps back before fluffing through the shirt in her hands, no longer caring about touching the blood stains.

Danny absentmindedly passed his globe over to Tucker (who almost dropped it before getting a good grasp) and placed the tip of his shoe into the blood to balance on so he could bend down and reach the object. Grabbing it in his fingers, he quickly jumped back out onto dry ground.

Before Danny could look at the object, a loud bang sounded across the warehouse.

"Oh, look who came back to clean up the evidence!"

Dash's voice echoed loudly. He appeared in the doorway across the building, hand held out to catch the door as it rebounded off the wall. The room flooded with the light of the afternoon sun.

The trio flinched in surprise and turned reflexively to face the bully, each acting fast. Danny fisted the small, found object protectively, his heart sinking to his stomach; Sam gasped, quickly hiding the shirt behind her back; and Tucker made to hide Danny's glowing ghost lantern behind his back as well, but fumbled in his haste and dropped it. The outer ice layer shattered, quick-releasing the ecto-blast within it with another loud bang.

"Gah!" Tucker screamed, jumping away from the small explosion, which created scorch marks on the concrete.

Danny flinched, looking over to make sure Tucker was okay. He was shaken, but otherwise fine.

"What are you doing here, Dash?" Sam spoke up bravely in attempt to distract him.

It worked; he hadn't noticed the ghost lantern. Dash strode confidently toward the trio. "I could ask you the same thing," he chided. Kwan appeared in the door and followed, coming to stand beside his friend as Dash stopped in front of Danny and Tucker. The bully peered between the geeks' shoulders at the blood pool, then narrowed his eyes at Sam still standing on the other side. "But I already know what you dweebs are up to," he finished defiantly.

Danny was sufficiently confused. How could the jocks have any idea he was connected to this place? And, though he tried to shield it from view, Dash saw the blood and wasn't even phased! It was as if he'd seen it... before...

Crap.

"What are you talking-?"

"Save it, Fenton!" Dash yelled, losing his confident composure in an instant. He took a threatening step toward Danny, who shuffled back in response, starting to feel scared. "You guys are seriously sick, you know that?" he accused, glaring at Tucker and then Sam before bringing his attention back to Danny. "And you're not even gonna own up to it?"

Danny was terrified now. So Dash (and probably Kwan) were obviously here last night...while he was practicing his powers...and knew about the blood.

When Danny couldn't bring himself to respond, Dash threw back his head and forced a laugh, then looked up at Sam again. "I assume goth freak here thought of it," he accused as Sam's eyes widened in surprise at the accusation. "I bet you made all the blood and I bet Foley," he turned to face Tucker, "put together all the light and sound effects to lure us in here while Fenton," he rounded on Danny once more, looking absolutely murderous, "played dead!"

"What!" Sam screamed.

Danny felt his knees want to buckle. The timing of Dash's story was all wrong. Those "light and sound effects" sounded like his training, but if that's what made them want to come into the warehouse, how could he have been out already? And what did he mean by "dead"?

"Dash," Kwan hesitated, observing the shock on the trios' faces, "they don't look like they know." He placed a hand in his buddy's shoulder to calm him down.

Dash immediately shrugged it off, his anger boiling. "You think you can pull a prank on us? Is this some kind of sick revenge for beating you up and stuffing you into lockers over the years?" Dash's frustration grew. "You knew we'd be out there by the docks, didn't you? You planned all of this to make me think I'd killed you!" For emphasis, Dash jabbed his finger hard into Danny's chest in the same spot where he remembered it looked like he'd been shot the night before.

Danny swayed, already unstable in his disbelief. His mind felt numb. What was he talking about? What all had Dash and Kwan seen? How did any of this explain how he'd ended up on the ground covered in blood?

When the accusers still refused to drop the surprised looks and own up, Dash finally lost it. "You made us look like idiots today when you showed up at school all fine and dandy," he growled out. "You did all this just to mess with our heads and get a few laughs? Well, guess what?" Dash clenched his fist. "Not. Funny!" And he drove a heavy punch into Danny's gut.

Danny immediately buckled, his weak knees finally gave out as he fell to ground right in the center of the blood pool. He groaned and wrapped his arms his stomach, coughing and rolling onto his side to catch his winded breath. He thought briefly how ironic it was that he'd done been in the same situation this morning.

"Danny!" Sam cried out, rushing to his side.

"What the hell, Dash?" Tucker demanded.

Dash ignored them. When Fenton went down, he saw something fly loose from his hand and land with a small _tink_ in a shallower part of the blood pool. He walked over and picked it up while Danny's and his friend were occupied.

It was a bullet, or what was left of one. Metal curled in strips resembling flower petals. All around, it was slick with blood and even little bits of what looked to be tissue clung to the crevices. Dash quickly turned the bullet around in his fingers. No... This looked like a nine-millimeter. The magazine in the pistol now resting at the bottom of the harbor took the same bullets. And if this was his bullet... then he really did shoot Fenton last night.

Resolving himself, Dash furrowed his eyebrows, stuffed the evidence in his pocket without a word and turned to the trio as Sam and Tucker were helping Danny to his feet.

"You're a freak, Fenton," Dash spat. "C'mon, Kwan." Very suddenly, the jock promptly, but calmly, walked out the way he came, followed ever dutifully by his friend.

"Um, what just happened?" Tucker asked quietly after a moment. "They left way too easily."

"I think I know," Sam responded slowly. "And something tells me this isn't over."

Danny chuckled humorlessly. "When is it ever over?"


	6. Team Meeting

Uploaded 7/23/13

Chapter 6: Team Meeting

Soon after Dash and Kwan left the warehouse and Danny had recovered from Dash's blow, the ghost boy turned the floor under his blood intangible, effectively erasing the last of the evidence of his having been there. With that done, he flew Sam and Tucker back to his house and, after Danny quickly changed out of his once-again-bloody clothes, they secluded themselves in Danny's room.

Where Danny effectively began to panic.

"This is not good. This is so not good!" He paced his room, unable to stay still; his hands fisted the hairs on his head. "What do they know? What if they saw me firing ecto-blasts? What if they tell someone, like the Guys in White? Or my parents!" Danny froze, eyes widening. "I am so dead." And he flopped face-down onto his bed, whining pathetically into his comforter.

"Seriously, Danny, you're so dramatic," Sam chided from the desk chair. She understood what he must be feeling. His secret was as risk now – and with enemies, this could be bad. However, she couldn't let Danny lose control. "Stay focused. We need to figure out all the facts before we call doomsday here."

"Yeah, cheer up! At least there's only half of you left to die," Tucker smirked, attempting to be helpful while squashed comfortably in a beanbag chair.

"Ha ha, Tucker," Danny groaned into the bed, hardly audible. Then he quickly flipped over and sat up folding his legs, looking pointedly at Sam. "How is this not already Doomsday? They think they saw me play dead!"

"Well, were you?" Tucker asked.

Danny blanched, taking a moment to sink in what he had just accused of. "Of-of course not! I think I'd remember playing dead!"

Sam shifted in her seat. "Danny," she said carefully, "I said back at the warehouse I think I know what happened." From her spider backpack, she brought out his bloody shirt - the object they'd gone to the docks to retrieve - and tossed it to Danny, who caught it loosely. "I think that shiny thing you picked up was a bullet," she paused, allowing the comment to sink in, then said, "and there's a hole in your shirt-"

"Right in the chest," Danny finished softly, having found it. He poked a finger through the hole located just over his heart had he been wearing it. It was just large enough to easily accommodate his thumb and the frayed edges were much deeper red in color than the rest of the tee. "Are you saying Dash shot me last night?" he asked in complete disbelief.

"Whoa!" Tucker bounced out of the beanbag chair and onto the bed to look at the shirt. He snatched the tee from Danny, who allowed it, all too ready to relinquish evidence that suggested he'd been shot.

"It makes sense...kinda," Sam shrugged with a smirk and a wince.

"How does that makes sense at all?" Danny waved his arms over his head and stressed, "Hello, still breathing over here!"

"Right, but you're not exactly normal, Danny. There are still so many things about you we don't know - abilities and powers you're still discovering you have!" Sam tried to explain, "I think Dash and Kwan heard you training last night and went in to investigate, though I don't think they actually saw you fire an ecto-blast; they would've made a bigger deal about that, so you should be fine on that front. But it was dark, and they assumed you were a ghost and somehow they shot you. It explains the blood, the shirt, Dash and Kwan, everything!"

"True," Danny said slowly, taking in Sam's scenario, "but I still don't understand how I take a bullet to the heart and wake up fine eight hours later!"

"I have an idea: your healing powers," Tucker chimed in confidently. At Danny and Sam's incredulous looks, he rolled his eyes and pressed on, determined to prove his theory. "Danny, how do your healing powers work in your human form verses your ghost form?"

Danny looked out the window in thought. "I've noticed any injuries I get in my ghost form heal quickly and as if they never happened. If I haven't healed when I change back, I still have the wounds in my human form and I heal slower, but still quicker than normal. And if I'm human too long, the wounds can scar." He turned back to Tucker. "Why?"

"Doesn't that sound like a power? A healing factor that's stronger when you're Phantom and weaker, yet still present, when you're Fenton, just like your other powers?"

"I guess so..." Danny trailed, waiting. Where was he going with this? It still isn't possible his healing powers were enough to enable him survive a gunshot wound... Is it?

Tucker continued, "Okay, now here's the tricky part: you were shot with a human bullet in your human form. But human weapons can't harm your ghost form, right?" Danny slowly nodded in agreement. "So, what if after you were shot, you did...um...die, but your dormant ghost half remained 'alive', powers intact? Your ghost half could give your human body full access to its healing powers even though you weren't in ghost form because, technically, your human half was dead at the time, too. Then, once your human form was healed, ta da! You rise from the dead!"

There was a moment of thoughtful silence before Sam leaned back and said, "That actually makes sense. It would also explain why you don't have any scars." Sam's gaze moved over to Danny. "Like you said, Phantom's ability is potent enough to heal them."

"So you're saying if my human half ever dies a human death, my ghost half can heal me back to life? This is..., "Danny shook his head, at a loss. "But what about all those times I almost died? The Paria Dark incident? Vlad's certainly come close to ending me more than once."

"But you didn't! You never have until now," Tucker reminded him, getting excited as his theory gained more and more credibility. "This 'metacrisis' might only happen when your human half completely dies. Like, your heart actually stops-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Danny said quickly, waving his hand and then using it to cover his eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam asked with concern. "Isn't this a good thing?"

Danny lowered his hand and confided, "It sounds like I can't die." He sighed, shifting. "I know I should feel relieved or something, but this...this is too much. I knew having ghost powers would change my life forever, but... forever is a long time if I can't grow old and die like everyone else." He leaned back on his bed, unfolding his legs and propping his arms up behind him for support. "I don't feel immortal, though," he wondered. "Are you sure I can't die?"

Tucker suddenly hopped off the bed and walked over to Danny's bookcase. Though not at all organized, Tucker managed to find three large hardback books, tossing each on the bed.

"My yearbooks?" Danny asked.

Tucker ignored him, concentrating on finding the pages he was looking for as he said, "I'm not sure I'd go as far as say you're immortal because, aha!" The techno-geek flipped the books around to face Danny, each on the page of Danny's school portrait. "See? Just before the accident," he narrated, pointing to Danny's freshman year portrait. He was very young, his face rounded in fourteen-year-old youth. His smile was bright and innocent. "One year after the accident," Tucker's finger moved to point at Danny's sophomore portrait in the next book. His jaw was slightly sharper and his smile was calmer, but still genuine. "And two years later," Tucker finished, pointing to his latest portrait from last year. Danny's jaw line was much more defined now and his hair somehow managed to get longer and shaggier. His smile was large and goofy and, despite his sitting down, he looked thinner and taller than his previous pictures.

"I've grown," Danny stated in only slight bewilderment. "So how can I be immortal?" He asked while he discretely closed the yearbooks to save his own embarrassment.

"Exactly! I don't think you are. My guess is, you'll still grow old and die like you're supposed to, but you probably won't have to worry about dying early in any accident so long as you still have your ghost half."

"I wonder if that makes Phantom your vulnerable side," Sam thought aloud. "Except, we still don't know if your ghost half can die."

Suddenly there came a call from downstairs. "Danny?" Maddie yelled. "Dinner's ready! Tell Sam and Tucker they're welcome to stay!"

"And on that note, we'll see you tomorrow, Danny!" Tucker piped up, gathering his things.

"What? You're not going to stay for my mom's home cooked meal?" Danny smirked knowingly at his friends.

"Are you kidding? Her cooking is proof you can't die of food poisoning! See you tomorrow!" And Tucker disappeared, bedroom door swinging in his wake.

Sam stood and gathered her things more slowly. "We'll figure this out, Danny. You know Tuck and I are here for you," she smiled sympathetically as she zipped her bag closed.

"I know," Danny stood, smiling back. "You guys are beyond helpful. I'll talk to Jazz tonight, too, while she's still in town." The two headed out of Danny's room and down the stairs.

"Good idea," Sam approved. "Sorry I can't stay, Mr. And Mrs. Fenton!" Sam called toward the kitchen. She grasped the nob to the front door and turned around to face Danny. "I know you don't want to go to school tomorrow, but seriously try not to worry about Dash and Kwan, okay? Just come to school and act like nothing happened; it'd be too suspicious if you skipped."

Danny slumped, rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, fine I'll go to school. Wait, how'd you know I wanted to skip?" He asked accusingly, raising an eyebrow.

Sam opened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch before answering, "You're too easy to read!" She laughed and added, "It's a wonder no one's discovered your secret." With that, she jumped down the stoop and jogged down the sidewalk to catch up with Tucker.

Danny rolled his eyes again with a smile while he closed the door and walked into the kitchen to join the rest of his family for dinner. He grabbed a glass from his spot at the table and filled it with water from the fridge.

"What was that I heard about skipping?" Maddie asked accusingly from then stove.

"Nothing, mom. Sam was just making sure," Danny said as he sat down with his water.

"I'm glad you two are still close," Maddie said, taking a casserole out of the oven. "She's a good influence on you."

Danny grimaced, slumping in his seat. His parents may not pay a whole lot of attention to him, but they paid enough to think he was a troubled teen. He couldn't hide bad grades and broken curfews from them forever, but he allowed them to think he was just misguided, because telling them he wasn't would just cause them to ask questions.

"I'm sure he's doing the best he can," Jazz said helpfully as she sat down across from Danny, flashing him a smile. He smiled appreciatively in return.

After a couple minutes of comfortable silence and waiting for the casserole to cool, Jack bounded loudly up the lab stairs. "It still works, Maddie!" Jack said enthusiastically, jumping up and down with a vile full of a dark orange liquid in his right hand. "The trials are still-"

"Ah ah ah!" Maddie chided quickly, stopping him from saying anything more. "That's great, honey, but remember what we talked about?" She carried the casserole to the table with oven mitts and set it down carefully in the center.

"Oh, I forgot! Sorry, kids. We're keeping this experiment close to the chest until it's finalized. I'll take it back downstairs. Be right back!" Jack left as quickly as he'd come.

Maddie grinned lovingly after Jack before sitting down and dishing out helpings for her husband and kids. "That's the project we've been working on for the past few weeks. We've been told not to discuss it with anyone, so you can imagine it's taking quite a toll on your father. If it's really done, though, the world will know soon enough," she said, seeming to glow with pride.

"Back!" Jack beamed, plopping down opposite his wife. He grabbed the fork next to his plate. "Thanks, Maddie!" he said before cramming his mouth full of macaroni casserole.

"Of course, sweetie."

Jazz frowned after taking a bite. "Mom, is there anything at all you can tell us about it?" she asked with genuine curiosity and also for her brother's benefit.

Maddie glanced at the lab door, then replied carefully, "All I can say is: I believe this will finally turn the war between humans and ghosts in our favor more than any other weapon we've ever created." She tried to hold back her excitement.

Danny's heart skipped and stomach dropped. Suddenly he wasn't very hungry anymore. Lately, he'd gotten pretty decent at keeping cool lid on his fear when his parents talked about weapons. But after the day he had, he couldn't handle a statement like that.

Danny lowered his fork. "I don't think I feel so good. Can I go lie down?" he asked, unable to look his mom in the eye.

"Sure, Danny. As long as you got enough to eat."

Properly dismissed, Danny ran up to his room and shut the door. He needed some time to think. What kind of weapon could be more dangerous than the Fenton Bazooka? Lying down on his bed, he stared at the stars on his ceiling attempting to collect his thoughts and keep calm.

About twenty minutes later, a soft knock sounded on Danny's door. "Danny?" came Jazz's sincere voice. "Can I come in?"

"It's open, Jazz," Danny replied, sitting up groggily.

Jazz peeked her head in the door. "Are you okay?" she asked before stepping inside.

"Close the door," Danny said.

Jazz obliged, then chose to sit on her brother's desk chair where Sam had sat earlier. "I just wanted to check on you. You seemed pretty shaken up by how Mom described their new weapon."

"It's more than that, but yeah. I can't figure out what kind of weapon could make her say that so confidently."

"You know she's probably exaggerating. She always does." Jazz said kindly.

"No," Danny shook his head, "the way she said it, and the fact that it's secret-their experiments are never secret! What if it's really dangerous this time?" Danny wrung his hands nervously. "Not knowing is the worst. I can't be prepared if they aren't going tell us what it does."

"You know what I'm going to say," Jazz lectured.

"I'm not telling Mom and Dad my secret. Not until they approve of Phantom," Danny steadfastly replied.

"They won't approve of you until you give them a reason to!" Jazz stressed. She sighed when he refused budge and said, "Look, if you won't tell, then there's nothing you can do but wait for them to go public with the weapon since you already tried sneaking in to find plans last week and that didn't work." She paused, unable to find another way to be helpful on the subject. "Did you say something else was bothering you?"

Danny had planned on telling Jazz he'd been shot that morning, but that sounded like a horrible idea now, given the situation with his parents. Wanting to give her just the good news, he settled on telling her half of the truth, deciding to tell her the rest later. "I think my healing powers expanded." He presented his arm for her to see. "All of my scars are gone."

Jazz got up and walked closer to Danny. "I thought you look a little different," Jazz said, looking at his face, then his arm. "Danny's that's incredible!" she exclaimed, standing back. "What does this mean?"

"I don't know. Sam and Tucker are still helping me figure it all out," he said honestly. "How long before you go back to school?"

"Until Sunday morning, so I still have five more days to be your annoying big sis," she giggled, fluffing her younger brother's hair.

Danny swatted away his sister's hand and looked at the clock. "It's getting late. I should do a quick patrol." Danny hopped off his bed and transformed into Phantom. "I didn't see a single ghost today, which means they're plotting something."

"You're such a pessimist, Danny," Jazz teased.

"I'd be crazy if I wasn't," Danny returned. "Don't wait up," he called before turning intangible to fly through his window and into the night.

* * *

**I really hope you all enjoyed this because I blew off my Calculus 3 take-home quiz to write this! *dies* (Also, if I don't update next week, I'm really sorry! Third exams are next week, finals are on August 8th and I'm scared out of my pants! Summer classes SUCK!)**

**But I couldn't wait to introduce this longer chapter with a twinge of thickening plot - there's SO much more to this story. I'm so excited to get into it!**

**OK, I have to go to make lunch and head to Physics now! PLEASE REVIEW! I love you!**


	7. Attacked

Uploaded 7/27/13

Chapter 7: Attacked

Again, Danny struggled to pay attention in class the next day. So much was still on his mind concerning the previous day's events and it certainly didn't help that Dash kept sneaking glances at the undead teen every chance he got, including the middle of Algebra II.

"He's staring at me again," Danny whispered over his shoulder, covering his face with his hand and shrinking in his seat. "I feel like a freak," he whimpered.

"Hey. Hey!" Sam leaned forward in her seat behind Danny and flicked the back of his head. She had this class alone with Danny since Tucker was off taking Advanced Placement Calculus. It was her job to protect him now. "Stop it with the pity party! He's not acting much different than normal; you're just making yourself look like you're hiding something. You're fine. You can do this," she whispered confidently.

Danny quickly straightened in his chair, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his flicked head before relaxing and attempting to give his attention back to the teacher. Even if her methods were a bit... unorthodox, Sam always seemed to know how to calm him down. He knew there was nothing more to be done about Dash. Confronting him would only make matters worse, especially of Danny asked what he and Kwan knew. The only thing he could do was wait it out - the same solution to his parents' deadly weapon...and the extent of his healing powers. After what he'd just learned, he wasn't even sure if his parent's weapon could kill him in the first place.

Danny found he'd slid down in his chair again when Sam audibly slapped him on the shoulder.

Their teacher turned from the board. "I appreciate your trying to keep Mr. Fenton awake, but perhaps you could avoid hitting him, Ms. Manson?" the he said with a hint of mirth.

Some of the students giggled when Sam replied sheepishly, "I'll do my best, Mr. Tone."

Danny straightened up once again, now feeling a little embarrassed. After taking a few minutes worth of notes on inequalities, a note landed on his desk. He silently unfolded it. The paper read 'I know you're not tired. You said there weren't any ghosts again last night,' in Sam's curly handwriting.

He scribbled underneath it, 'Sorry I sorta keep thinking about my parents' secret invention. They finished it last night.' Folding the notebook paper back up, he twisted his arm around and placed it on her desk.

About a minute later, the note fluttered back to him. 'And they still won't say what is does?!' Sam had scribbled back.

Just as Danny touched his pencil down to reply, the lights flickered, then shut off. The girls in the class screamed as the room was cast in darkness, though enough light to see by was still streaming through the classroom's small windows. Screams died down to excited chatter as it became apparent that the lights weren't going to turn back on.

Mr. Tone decided to take charge and said, "Everyone, please stay calm." He stood and raised his faculty radio over his head for silence. "The backup generator isn't working, so we're going to follow the fire escape route to the fields."

Danny's chest suddenly went cold. A shivered danced up his spine and his breathe fogged up before him. He jumped out of his seat as the rest of the class moved to exit.

"Ghost?" Sam asked, standing next to him.

A moaning sound was heard from the hallway. The few students who had already left the room rushed back in and slammed the door shut, shivering and wide-eyed. Several students screamed and backed into dark corners of the classroom.

"Shh!" Danny insisted, standing absolutely still. Mr. Tone, Sam, and a few others joined him in attempt to quiet the cries. When the sick moaning suddenly progressed with renewed gusto, the class finally became silent except for a few cornered whimpers.

"Who is it?" Sam whispered in Danny's ear.

He shivered again and whispered back, "I...I think it's," but he shook his head. Danny had learned to use his ghost sense to distinguish his common ghostly enemies from one another based on their power level and other indescribable details. Often, he could know who was coming before he saw them. This time, however, his sense felt different... and yet familiar. The twinge he came to recognize as a ghost's signature was right around the range of a ghost he knew, but he felt the sense throughout his whole body and the temperature was too high. Something was definitely wrong.

The moaning approached a crescendo right outside the classroom door. Students shrunk further into the shadows while the rest remained still, each holding their breath. Danny braced himself, not entirely sure what he was up against. He wished he could escape and come back as Phantom, but leaving through the door was now completely out of the question and he was too plainly in view in the center of the classroom too escape unseen through the back wall. Unfortunately, he was stuck here like everyone else.

Abruptly, the moaning stopped, but before anyone could take a sigh of relief, a figure phased through the door. It stumbled in, stooping over on two feet planted shakily on solid ground. The ghost's black cloak was torn and his suit was tattered. His white hair was frayed crazier than usual and his green skin was sickly pale.

He looked up, staring straight at Danny through broken sunglasses. "There you are," he ground out, leaning back on the door frame.

"Technus?" Danny breathed under his breath in disbelief. He looked awful - sick even.

One by one, the students turned to follow the ghost's gaze on the center of the room where Danny, Sam, Dash, and a few other students stood. Those under his stare slowly sidestepped out of the way while Danny and Sam bravely remained still.

Technus pushed off against the door. "Help us!" he yelled desperately. All eyes were back on the frantic ghost. He suddenly flew toward Danny, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and pulled him intangibly through the rear window.

"Danny!" Sam shouted after him.

The class screamed in panic, quickly beginning to throw themselves out the door and into the hallway for fear of being the ghost's next victim. Sam struggled through the mass. This was bad; she had to find Tucker.

Technus didn't make it far, though. Almost as soon as he'd cleared the window, he and the ghost boy flickered tangible again and crashed six feet back to the ground.

"Gah!" Danny yelped, tumbling away. After catching a winded breath, he jumped to his feet holding a bruised arm, but otherwise okay. "Technus!" Danny rounded on the ghost who was still trying to pick himself up. "You crossed a line, here! What the heck is going on?" he shouted in an authoritative tone usually reserved for Phantom.

"You have to help us," Technus pleaded again, still struggling.

Danny looked up. Unfortunately, they'd landed on the school fields and now the students and faculty were gathering in view at a distance. Then, he heard wheels screeching from the parking lot. Danny turned in time to see the Guys in White's supped up SUV hop the curb and drive into the grass to stop about fifty feet short of the half and full ghost.

There went his window to change into Phantom unseen. At this point, Danny decided he needed to back away from Technus. He couldn't be associated with the ghost in his human form so close up to the Guys in White.

Technus finally stumbled to his feet, catching sight of the operatives with wide, fearful eyes before pleading to Danny once more, "You gotta do something!" he begged.

"Ghost, you are under arrest!" one operative called, gun trained on the full ghost. "Stand down and come quietly."

"Get out of here, Technus!" Danny whispered urgently. Normally he wouldn't care about a ghost he considered his enemy, but even Technus' desperate cries for his help were beginning to worry him. "There's nothing I can do like this and I don't have a thermos on me! Just fly away!"

Technus sent the operatives another fearful look before rushing to Danny, grabbing his arms just under the sleeves of his shirt and pleading even more desperately, "I can't! You don't understand. They're gonna destroy everything!" He shook Danny. "Please!"

"Step away from the boy or we'll shoot!"

But the half ghost couldn't hear them. Suddenly his arms were in searing pain! Danny screamed and wretched himself free of the ghost. He cradled his limbs while hissing away the burning sensation.

As soon as Danny backed far enough away, the government operatives fired as one. Before his eyes, Technus cried out and once again crumpled to the ground, now cradling his side in obvious agony.

Danny gasped and jumped back. He stared down at Technus, stunned. The ghost looked up at him, defeat in his eyes, and, in Danny's utter disbelief, saw him mouth 'please' one last time before his body deformed, melting into a pile of ectoplasm.

The two Guys in White ran up to the defeated ghost, harshly pushing Danny out of the way. "Damn, he didn't make it," one said, searching over Technus' remains.

"We can still collect samples," the other said, pulling out a several test tubes and proceeding to fill them using a scoopula.

Danny just stared in shock, clutching his burned arms. Sam and Tucker chose that moment to run up from behind him to stand on either side for support. Did Technus just die? Was it the weapon they shot him with that killed him or was it whatever had made him weak in the first place? Could that have been him had he not gotten out of the way?

"Come on," Sam prodded Danny gently. "Let's get you home before anyone else shows up."

Danny tore his eyes away from the scene and allowed his friend to lead him to the parking lot. Sam had driven them to school that morning, so the trio piled into her car for a quick ride to Danny's house.

On the way there, they passed the Fenton's GAV speeding and swerving in the opposite direction toward the school. In the back seat, Danny hunkered down to avoid being seen, just in case. At least he knew they'd have the house to themselves for a while.

Once again, the friends gathered in Danny's room. The ghost boy sat on his bed and slowly uncrossed his arms, having used his hands to cover the burns during the trip. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. The wounds, though already beginning to heal, were raw, red and blistering. Second degree. They stung sharply in exposure to the outside air.

"Whoa, what happened?" Tucker asked, only now noticing Danny was hurt.

"Did Technus do that to you? Is that why you jumped away from him?" Sam peered at the injuries with concern, noting the rough outlines of hands prints. She reached under his bed, pulled out a first aid kit and moved the desk chair over to the bed next to Danny so she could sit and work.

"Something was off about Technus," Danny told his friends, turning to allow Sam access to his left arm. "His ecto-signature felt...weird. He burned my arms just by grabbing me-never charged an ecto-blast. I don't even think he knew he was hurting me and he couldn't have been strong enough to if he tried. It was as if the ectoplasm he was made of was...tainted. Ah!" Danny winced as Sam began to wrap his upper arm in gauze.

"Sorry," Sam apologized sympathetically.

"Danny, is that you? What are you doing home? Mom and Dad just-" Jazz appeared in the doorway, but stopped short upon seeing Danny being tended to. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" She walked into the room carefully. "I was going to tell you Mom and Dad got a call about a ghost at Casper... but I guess you already knew that," she finished lamely.

"Technus," Danny confirmed, shifting to allow Sam to wrap his other arm. "I think it was an accident, though. He came to me asking for help."

"That's why he dragged you through the window in front of the whole class? He knows better than to risk your secret like that! All of your enemies do! What could be so important?" Sam huffed, finishing the first aid and moving to put the box back under the bed.

"Something important enough that he died trying to tell me," Danny answered solemnly. He wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, even a ghost as annoying as Technus.

"You think he's really dead?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah," Danny nodded, "and now I don't think the Guys and White's weapons killed him. Technus had said 'help us' not 'help me'. Whatever made him sick and weak - whatever poisoned his ectoplasm - must be affecting other ghosts, too."

"I wonder if that's why there haven't been any around lately. They're too weak to leave the Ghost Zone," Sam suggested.

"Or they're being captured by the Guys and White," Danny added. "Technus looked pretty terrified when he saw them. He could've escaped and was running from them."

Then team thought for a moment. When no other ideas came to mind, Jazz asked her brother, "What are you going to do?" though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"I have to try to help them," Danny said with building resolve. "It's my job as the bridge between both worlds."

Sam, Tucker and Jazz each felt the need to convince Danny that no one was pushing this job onto him, but they knew arguing with him would be pointless. Technus had died asking for his help. Whether it cam from a ghost or a child, there was no way Danny was going to ignore a plea like that.

Sam crossed her arms, smirked and asked with in mock defeat, "What do you want us to do?"

In the following hour, Danny's parents arrived back home while the secretive group began to toss around ideas concerning what to do about Technus' last words. After a while, Jazz left to entertain her parents downstairs and attempt to get more information on their own secret.

Several dead-end ideas later, the trio heard pounding on the front door. Danny hopped off the bed and cracked open his door for better audio. Sam and Tucker followed suit.

_BANG BANG!_ "Guys in White! Open up!"

Danny shrunk back into his room, heart skipping. At this rate he was going to get a heart attack. "What are they doing here?" he panicked. He heard the front open and faint talk between his parents and the two operatives he recognized from earlier.

"Maybe they're not here for you. They could just want to talk to your parents about weapons and stuff," Tucker shrugged.

"Danny!" Jack's voiced boomed, excited as always."C'mon down here, son! The Guys and White want to talk to you!"

"Or...," Tucker drawled out, "maybe they _are_ here for you."

"I'm dead," Danny whimpered.

* * *

**Squeezed this out before 3rd exams! I found out my Physics 2 final is an 8-hour take-home due-online-at-midnight type deal! YAY! I'm still aiming to get another chapter out next weekend - it should be a good one! - but that depends on how much studying I feel like cramming in XP**

**The first 400 words or so is an inside joke I played on myself. I actually wrote it ****_during _****Calculus 3 between note-takings (my friends were so confused!), so naturally I put Danny and Sam in Algebra II (a senior-level math class) and Tucker in AP Calculus since that's what I took my senior year. And I named the teacher after my Calculus 2 professor because she was amazing and Tone is such a great name for a teacher haha!**

**OH! And I got an A- on that take-home quiz I blew off to write the last chapter, so thanks for all the reviews and support, you guys are ****_freaking magical!_**

**I know there's a lot going on, so let me know what's confusing. I'll try to use a future opportunity in the story to explain it further. **

**Is the plot moving too fast? Characterization okay? Predictions? Please review! ****_I have cupcakes!_**


	8. House Call

Uploaded 8/2/13

House Call

"Maybe I can just fly out the window," Danny suggested quickly. Without thinking, he made to bolt across the room but Sam caught his hand and spun him back around.

"So they can detect ghost activity? Four ghost hunters downstairs know you're up here! Do you know how suspicious that would be?" she cautioned quietly.

"Danny, now!" Maddie called again.

Tucker briefly planted a hand on Danny's shoulder for support. "Better get it over with, dude. They'll just want to talk about what happened at school."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Danny said with a shrinking feeling. "I don't know what to tell them."

"Just be honest," Sam assured, pushing him lightly toward the hallway. "You didn't use your powers, so there's nothing they can hold against you. Besides," she smiled, "we'll be right there with you."

Danny sucked a deep breath and let it out in a rush. "Thanks, guys. After everything that's happened, I guess the stress is getting to me," he reasoned.

With new motivation, Danny walked deliberately into hall, then down the main staircase. Sam and Tucker followed close behind. However, when Danny came to the living room, he couldn't bring himself to enter. Instead, he paused outside the door frame and out of sight to listen for an extra minute.

"Your son was involved in the ghost incident at Casper High today. We're just here to follow up on a few details," one operative explained.

"What?" Maddie gasped. "Our Danny? He's never wanted anything to do with ghosts before. Was he hurt?" she asked, worried.

"Yeah, he would've told us if he was fighting ghosts!" Jack confirmed, as if these simple facts about his son disproved the operatives' reason for being there.

Danny couldn't help but feel disappointed. His parents really didn't know anything about him. He also felt horribly guilty that his dad would assume he wouldn't keep a secret about ghosts from them. If they found out he'd been hiding Phantom under their noses for over three years, they'd be absolutely devastated. Or angry.

Sam placed her hand between his shoulder blades in a gentle gesture to move forward. Although his resolve was short lived, he swallowed and entered the room. Upon seeing the four adults sitting patiently turn to stare, he shyly crossed his arms in attempt to cover the bandages.

It didn't work.

"So it did touch you," the burley Caucasian operative observed from the couch. He sat in a pretentious and dignified manner next to his African American partner who mirrored his posture as well as his dress. True to their organization's name, both wore familiar too-white suits.

"Danny!" Maddie exclaimed, jumping out of her chair to stand, "You're hurt."

Danny bristled and unintentionally sent a soft glare at the agents. "I'm fine," he said defensively. How dare they refer to the ghost they destroyed as an 'it' and then invite his parents to worry over him.

The Guys in White agents stood as well. "We'd like to take a look at your wounds. Would you mind unwrapping them?" the Caucasian asked unsympathetically.

The ghost boy took a step back and tightened his crossed arms, feeling bombarded as the intimidating hunters began to stand. He shook his head. "I'd rather not," Danny said sternly.

"Sweetie," Maddie said lightly, "if you're hurt, I'd like to see that you're okay. Please?"

At his mom's pleading tone, Danny melted. A part of him felt betrayed that she only noticed he was injured because the Guys and White had just told her so, but another part wanted desperately to please her. Also, the agents had personally seen Technus touch him, so they weren't going to let this go. Danny realized there was no logical way out, so he might as well show them.

Sam and Tucker watched with caution as Danny slowly unwrapped his bandages one at a time. He grimaced as the last layer tugged at his sensitive skin before coming off. Since Sam had first wrapped them, the wounds had greatly improved. Now only first degree burns, the blisters were gone, leaving simple misshapen raw spots on the outsides of each upper arm. His healing power was definitely working at normal speed again in his human form. He guessed he'd have his first faint scars by midnight.

"Danny-boy, did a ghost really do that to you?" Jack asked in awe as he came to stand next to his wife, who also looked shocked. Though ghost attacks weren't at all uncommon in Amity Park, ghosts usually hurt humans in a second-hand form, like dropping or pushing dangerous objects into one's path or using their uniquely distinguishable abilities. It had been a while since the hunters had seen a direct attack on a human like this.

"I'm fine, honest," Danny repeated, this time more sincere for his parents' sake.

"As I thought, its touch penetrated your skin," the Caucasian operative stated.

The African agent stepped forward and produced a small, white box from his briefcase and placed it on the end table next to Danny. "As this ghost was very dangerous, we'll need to check you for ecto-contamination." He unlatched the handle and lifted the lid back on its hinges, then brought out an antiseptic packet and split that open as well. "I'll need a small blood sample," said the agent as he gathered other supplies.

Danny felt the color drain from his face. He quickly covered the burns with his hands again. "N-no, that's okay. Seriously, I'm totally fine!" Danny stuttered, backing a few steps toward the stairs.

"Danny, they have a point," Maddie said. "It looks like that ghost held onto you, and of it did, you could be contaminated."

The African operative moved closer to Danny holding the antiseptic wipe in one hand while brandishing a button prick often used in children's doctors offices in the other. "I just need a small finger sample," he said.

Danny back up further, threatening to leave the living room. "I-I...needles. I don't do needles," he improvised. The ghost boy shook his head and hugged his arms tighter.

Sam and Tucker moved around their friend to shield him from the oncoming, needle-bearing agent.

"You can't take his blood without his permission or a warrant!" Sam declared.

The operative paused. He looked back at his partner.

"Daniel, how old are you?" the Caucasian agent asked.

"I'll be eighteen this summer," Danny said with confusion. "Why?"

"So that makes you seventeen." He turned his head to address Maddie. "Mrs. Fenton, do I have your permission to take your son's blood sample?"

"No!" Sam yelled.

Danny choked. He was still a minor. His parents who knew nothing about him could still make all his medical and legal decisions for him.

Maddie looked in confusion at each of the operatives, then her pleading son. His eyes were wide with fear. "Yes," she said simply.

"Mom!" Danny cried out.

"I don't understand why you're so scared, honey! It's just a finger prick. We only want to make sure you're okay."

The African operative roughly reached his hand between Sam and Tucker and yanked Danny's left hand free from its grip on his right arm.

"Ow! Hey!" Danny yelled as the agent flipped his hand over, quickly wiped his third finger with the antiseptic and then pressed the prick button into his finger. A small spec of red blood appeared at the tip of the digit. The agent swiftly moved his hand from Danny's wrist to his finger to help squeeze the blood out. With his other hand he produced a strip of special paper from his pocket and touched it to the edge of the blood drop. The liquid was immediately absorbed.

As the agent released Danny's hand, Jazz appeared behind him, having come from upstairs. "Hey, what's going on? I took out my headphones and-" her tone became accusatory when she saw who all was in her parent's home. "What are the Guys in White doing here?"

"They're checking my blood for ectoplasm contamination," Danny said with just enough of worry for Jazz to pick up on.

Jazz covered her mouth. "Oh, no," she whispered.

The African agent turned to his colleague who held up a device that reminded Danny of his television remote. He slid the paper into a slot at the top, then the Caucasian agent pressed a few buttons. The gadget hummed for a few seconds, then a light-emitting diode on the side lit up red.

The operatives look up at Danny curiously. "It's positive," the Caucasian one announced.

Though Danny wasn't surprised, that didn't stop him from freaking out. They knew. His heart raced. He wanted more than anything to turn invisible, fly away or teleport anywhere but here. But he still couldn't afford to make the Guys in White even more suspicious. He'd kept his secret this long; no tiny blood sample was going to ruin that.

Danny fully expected the Guys in White to pin him down, arrest him or otherwise overreact. Instead, the African American operative turned to his parents.

"Mr. And Mrs. Fenton," he asked, "how far along is the project?"

They took a moment to shake out of their disbelief before Jack spoke up. "We finished it yesterday. It's in the trial stages now."

"Bring it here," the agent said.

"What!" Tucker exclaimed.

"No!" Sam echoed.

Jack looked at his wife for approval. At her nod, he responded to the agents with a half smile. "Sure, let me run down to the lab."

"Dad, wait!" Danny panicked. He latched onto Jack as he walked past him. "Don't! You don't need to do that. I feel great!" he assured desperately.

Jack gently removed his arm from his son's grasp. "Don't worry, Danny-boy. This serum's gonna do the trick," he smiled. Oblivious to his son's discomfort, he continued toward the lab.

"You're working for them?" Jazz asked her mother in disbelief. "Mom, how could you?"

Maddie scanned the faces or her children and son's friends. She let out a small laugh to lighten the mood. "What has gotten in to you kids? There's nothing to be afraid of! It's not dangerous to humans and it has well exceeded our expectations in the testing experiments."

"I-I should probably start my homework," Danny forced out, feeling weak. He pivoted on the spot and made for the stairs in his second escape attempt of the evening.

"Daniel Fenton, don't you dare leave this room!" Maddie demanded. "In fact, come sit here on the couch."

Danny paused mid-step and began to weigh his options.

"Now!"

The ghost boy slumped in defeat. No matter how badly he wanted to leave, he still couldn't think of a way out without blowing his cover. If he didn't cooperate, his parents could think he was possessed and that would be more dangerous for him than anything. So, he obeyed his mother and sat slowly on the far cushion under the stares the Guys in White. His friends looked on with sympathy, also unsure of what to do. He tried to look brave for them.

"Got it!" Jack announced as he bounded back into the room. He held up a syringe filled with the same orange liquid Danny recognized from dinner last night. Jack handed it over to the African agent's outstretched hand.

"What exactly does this do?" Danny asked, keeping his eyes on the syringe as he held back his growing fear.

"We originally developed it as a ghost deterrent," Jack explained. "The Guys in White here asked us to make them a biological agent that could keep ghosts from controlling or overshadowing us humans. If it works, it'll—"

"If? Wait, so you haven't started human trials yet?" Tucker asked in shock.

Jazz gasped. "You can't force Danny to be your guinea pig! That's completely unethical!"

"Okay, now hold on a minute!" Danny freaked, leaning away from the approaching hunter as his friends attempted to stick him. "I really don't think this is a good idea!" He hopped his feet into the cushion, but the other agent moved behind the couch and planted his heavy arms firmly on Danny's shoulders. He was stuck.

"No!" Sam screamed. She dashed toward the operative with the needle, but Jack caught her before she could make it.

"It's okay, Sam! We're helping him," he told her.

Sam struggled but the father was too strong. "You don't understand. It could kill him!"

Danny's eyes flew to meet Sam's, but it was too late. The agent used the ghost boy's distraction to plunge needle into his right arm, just below his burn.

"Ah!" Danny flinched at the unexpected pinch as the plunger was squeezed down. The operatives immediately let go of Danny and backed off.

Jack released Sam, who rushed to Danny's side. "Are you okay?"

"I...think so," he said, though not at all convincingly. In truth, his arm was beginning to tingle painfully. He gripped it and concentrated on keeping his breathing steady.

"We'll be going now," the Caucasian agent announced.

"Thank you for letting us know about Danny," Maddie said politely.

The operative nodded curtly as his partner packed up his kit and they quickly showed themselves out.

Tucker joined Sam at Danny's side. "Dude, you don't look so good," he noted as Danny gasped and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Maddie stepped toward her son out of concern, but stopped. She was confused. "Jack, it shouldn't be hurting him."

"Ah!" Danny yelped and doubled over. He didn't know what he was feeling, but it was strange and definitely painful. The muscles in his arm cramped and he began feel the harsh tingling of the serum moving rapidly down his arm.

"Danny, can we take you upstairs?" Sam asked. Danny didn't respond. He was either too busy concentrating on the pain or he didn't hear her in the first place. That was all the answer she needed. "Come on, Tuck, help me."

Danny screamed. Tears sprung to his eyes. The feeling had reached his chest and it was no longer tingly. It burned and boiled inside him.

Sam and Tucker recoiled, afraid their touch caused him more pain.

"Danny!" Sam called, hovering her hands over his upright fetal position on the couch. He still wasn't responding. She looked at her friend. "Tucker, what do we do?"

Jazz reacted quickly. "Mom, Dad! Exactly how does that serum work?" she asked.

"It's just supposed to repel ectoplasm," Jack told more himself than Jazz as he stared at his son's shivering form.

At that moment, Danny gasped. The noise sounded awful and wrong. His lungs burned. On the exhale, Danny coughed violently. His eyes brimmed with more tears as the pain only spread.

"There's blood on his knee," Tucker whispered.

Sam quickly leaned over to look at Danny's face hidden in his curled position. "Shit, he's coughing up blood," she noted. She briskly wiped away her own tears as she tried to keep her feelings under control. "He's bleeding internally and it's in lungs. Tucker, go grab towel!"

Tucker immediately dashed into the kitchen.

"I don't understand!" Maddie cried. "How could our serum do this to Danny; it was supposed to make him safe!"

"Mom, I need more information! How does it work? Please!" Jazz grasped her mother shoulders for her full attention. She wanted to cry, too, but she had to focus just like Sam and Tucker. There was still time.

Maddie couldn't meet her daughter's eyes, but replied, "Like your father said, it was supposed to just repel ectoplasm, but — in our experiments — the serum was able to attack and extinguish it."

"That's it!" Jazz spun around. "Sam, Tucker! It's destroying the ectoplasm in his blood cells!"

"That explains his internal bleeding, but how do we stop it?" Sam yelled as she accepted a kitchen towel from Tucker. She used it to clear out Danny's mouth and nose.

The more Danny coughed, the weaker he felt. White-hot pain continued to boil through his entire body, but he had run out of strength to react. He drifted, only semi-aware that his friends caught him and carefully helped him lie on his side. Danny was grateful for that. Had they laid him on his back, breathing would have even more difficult.

Danny gave up trying to cough his lungs clear as it sapped his strength and became more difficult to breath. He instead settled for any air he could squeeze in. His heart fluttered as well; it's beat didn't feel steady. He squeezed his eyes shut in concentration. Keep breathing. Keep beating.

Danny felt a pat on his cheek. He opened his eyes to find Sam staring into his. "Stay with us, Danny," she said. Her purple eyes shined with tears. "Keep your eyes open, okay? You're going to be fine, I promise," she assured.

Danny briefly pursed his lips closed and lifted the corner in his best attempt at a smile. He felt the harsh tingly pain begin to diminish. She was right. He'd be okay. More than anything, Danny knew Sam was too stubborn to let anything happen to him.

His heart began to slow as the pain disappeared. He felt calm and so very tired. His eyes drifted shut. Someone shook him and yelled out his name, but Danny ignored it.

He just needed a quick nap. He'd be okay.

Sam had promised.

* * *

**I worked super hard to get this out to you guys since I knew it'd be a good one! Kinda like killing Technus last chapter, this went in a beautifully unseen direction I hadn't originally thought of when I wrote the outline. All my plot pints are happening, but the ****_way_**** their happening makes me SO HAP**PY!

**I was aiming for 'gutwrenchingly sad'. ****_How'd I do?!_**** Seriously, I have to know! I wrote this for YOU! Complain, criticize, cry, take your anger out - I don't care - I just REALLY gotta know!**

**Also predictions, comments, thoughts, questions - I love them all!**

**Thank you! 3**


	9. Coping

Uploaded 8/14/13

Chapter 9: Coping

"DANNY!"

Maddie screamed, rushing to kneel in front of her son. She could no longer deny that her serum couldn't possibly hurt her baby boy. His eyes were closing even as Sam shook him.

"I-I don't understand!" Maddie wept. She shook him as well. "Danny? Sweetie, open your eyes. Danny, please! Look at me!"

Jack stood behind his wife shaking his head. His red eyes brimmed with tears. "What have I done?" he choked, clenching a fist over his mouth. Danny had begged him to stop. He'd begged him not to fetch the serum. Why hadn't he listened?

Maddie suddenly stopped shaking her son. She held her breath – thinking – then slowly pressed two fingers into Danny's neck, just under his jaw. The mother waited.

"No," she demanded with a jolt, shaking her head. Maddie repositioned her fingers, then moved to try searching for a pulse on his wrist.

There was none.

"NO!" she screamed. Maddie gripped her son, bringing his head close to her chest to bury her face into his hair. "My baby," she sobbed, rocking him.

Sam couldn't stop her own oncoming tears. She silently rose up from the floor and backed away to stand by Tucker. How could this have happen so fast? It was unreal. Danny was always so strong. He was supposed to be her invincible rock; the unstoppable Phantom! To go like this...at the hands of his own parents...

"It's like a nightmare," Jazz whispered. She stood on Sam's other side with her eyes locked on her brother, but her legs suddenly buckled and she crumpled to the floor, burying her face in her hands. "This is exactly what I was afraid of," she choked. "We even talked about it last night. I told him to tell Mom and Dad the truth but—" she wracked another sob. "I should've been more forceful!"

Sam knelt down beside her. "Jazz," she said through her own tears, "you couldn't have forced him. You know how stubborn he is about his secret."

Jazz sniffed, looking up. "Well, they'll have to know now," she said solemnly.

Sam watched as Jack and Maddie continued to mourn over Danny. Jazz was right. When they recover, they're going to ask questions. She couldn't imagine how they'd take knowing the truth, though. It'd be devastating – especially finding out after it was too late.

"Tucker, what do you think? Should we tell them?" When he didn't answer, Sam looked up at him. He stood unmoving, still watching Danny's mom break down over her son. "Tucker?" Sam whispered with concern.

"This isn't right," he spoke up slowly.

A tear ran down Sam's cheek. He was in denial. They all were. "Tuck, I know Danny's your best friend—"

"No." Tucker finally broke contact with the scene on the couch. He roughly rubbed the back of his wrist into his eyes before turning to Sam and Jazz. "I mean, he can't be..." He stuttered, unable to say it. Making sure the parents were still occupied, he knelt down to his friends' level and whispered, "He died two nights ago and came back, remember? He should come back again!"

Sam perked up in excitement, but quickly depressed again. "But it was hours before he woke up, remember? And we still don't know for sure if he really died."

"What are you two talking about?" Jazz whispered back harshly.

Sam and Tucker shared a look. "He didn't tell you?" Sam asked.

"Tell me what?" Jazz whispered, frustratedly wiping away more tears. "Are you saying there's a chance he could..." she faded off expectantly.

Tucker hesitated. "I don't know," he said. He didn't mean to get their hopes up, but he had to share his thought. "The other day we think he was... shot and... you know." He glanced at the couch with a grimace. "But, he woke up from it the next morning. That's why he never came home."

"Who shot him?" Jazz asked, flabbergasted.

"Dash did. With a regular gun," he answered. Jazz gasped and made to express her feelings, so he interrupted her in order to continue his thought. "I know, Jazz, but that's not the point! The point is: he came back!"

Sam shook her head as fresh tears threatened to fall. "Yesterday you said as long he he died a human death, his ghost half's healing power would bring him back. I know he's human now, but whatever it was they injected him with attacked his ectoplasm. How can he heal without it?"

For a minute, the three were silent. Maddie continued to cry and sometime during their previous whisperings Jack had knelt down next to his wife and hugged her even as she held Danny.

Finally, Jazz had an idea. "That's only assuming there's none left!" she whispered excitedly, which looked odd as her eyes were still very red. "If they underestimated the amount of ectoplasm in him – which is very possible – and that serum works like a chemical reaction, the serum could have run out before it destroyed all his ectoplasm. If he has any ectoplasm left at all—"

"Phantom could still be okay and eventually Danny will come back," Tucker finished. "That must be what took Danny so long to wake up that time. If he used up a lot of energy from training, he would have to regenerate his ectoplasm first before he could heal!" A hint of hope lit in his eyes behind the glasses.

Sam groaned. "So, assuming the serum works the way we think, he still has some ectoplasm left, and our theory that Phantom's power can heal him is correct, Danny might come back...eventually? There has to be a way we can know for sure, or—" her eyes flickered. "The green stuff," she whispered under her breath.

Tucker looked up at Sam, amazed.

Jazz glanced between the two in confusion. "Wait, what are you talking about? What 'green stuff'?"

"When Danny gets seriously hurt, he uses this special kind of ectoplasm," Sam said quickly. "Tucker, can you—?"

"On it!" he said, dashing to his feet. He jumped a few steps toward the stairs, but stumbled to a stop and turned back to Sam. "Wait, doesn't he keep that stuff in the..."

"Unfortunately," Sam said sadly.

"Great. Sorry, Danny," he said to himself before dashing up the stairs.

"What do you mean by 'special' ectoplasm?" Jazz asked Sam.

The goth sighed. "I don't know why he doesn't tell you these things. Last year, Clockwork told Danny about this secret place in the Ghost Zone that apparently gives it 'energy'. It's the reason ghosts go back to their layers to heal and why weak ones can't stay in the human world for too long. I don't know what exactly it is – I don't even think Danny knows for sure – but I guess it's like super purified ectoplasm. He usually keeps a few bottles inside the wall so his parents can't find it."

As if on cue, a loud bang sounded from upstairs as Tucker kicked in the drywall. Jack unwound from his embrace to look questioningly at the ceiling, then down at Jazz and Sam.

"What're you kids doing?" he asked, only half invested in the question.

Tucker flew back down the stairs trailing drywall dust and hopped to a stop next to Jazz and Sam. "Got it," he declared, holding up a small, two-inch-tall bottle of glowing green liquid. "I found this in there, too." He gingerly held up an unused syringe, still capped and in its original plastic. "Still hate needles," he sulked.

"Here, give them to me," Sam offered as she stood up and held out her hand. Tucker gladly relinquished the supplies.

While Sam filled the syringe, Jazz got up and walked carefully over to her mother to gently touch her shoulder. "Mom," she whispered, "why don't you and Dad go upstairs and lie down? This isn't good for you..."

Maddie lifted her face from her son's hair. Her eyes were red and her cheeks tearstained. She looked awful. "I'm not leaving him, Jasmine," she said definitively.

"Just...give us some more time," Jack said. He still sat on the floor next to his wife, who had promptly reburied her face into Danny's. She began to quiver silently, so he wrapped his arms around her once more.

Jazz glanced with worry back at Sam and Tucker, seeming to consider something before she sighed and spoke again. "Mom...Dad," she addressed calmly, "we think we've found a way to help him, but I need you to trust us...okay?"

Both parents perked up immediately, swinging their heads around to stare at Jazz with wide eyes.

"Did you say 'help him'?" Jack asked in disbelief.

"Save him," Jazz amended with a small, encouraging smile. "We're not sure, but we think there's a chance if you'll only allow us to try."

Sam and Tucker joined the Fenton's at Danny's side. Another tear slipped from the goth's eyes as she waited for his chest to rise. It stubbornly chose not to. This ectoplasmic booster shot had better work. Sam didn't want to think about what she'd do if it didn't.

"Is that ectoplasm?" Jack asked, paling at the sight of the filled syringe in Sam's hand.

Maddie's eyes fell on the needle, too, as Jazz made room for Sam to administer the shot.

"No!" Maddie screamed. She flung herself over Danny's midsection, blocking access to his bare arms.

Jazz shouted, "Mom—!"

"No!" The mother screamed again, squeezing Danny tight as fresh tears streamed down her face. "I'm not letting you turn your brother into a ghost!"

Sam flinched back, stunned. She knew it didn't work like that, right?

Jazz groaned and tried to reassure her. "Mom, we're not – I mean he's—"

"Mrs. Fenton!" Tucker yelled with an authoritative tone that surprised everyone. He'd made an executive decision. "Danny already had ectoplasm in his blood. He has for years and – believe it or not – he needs that ectoplasm to live! If he has any left at all," he then gestured to the syringe, "then this could help his body restore it." Tucker took a deep breath to calm himself. "Please. It could save him," he said desperately.

Tucker's last plea took Maddie off guard. Sam had said something similar; she had warned them their serum could hurt him. The mother stared at Tucker, then observed the secretive expressions of Sam and Jazz. "You three know something, don't you?" she asked.

Sam looked back at Jazz and Tucker. None of them wanted to answer.

Jack mentally agreed with his wife. The kids knew something about Danny that they didn't. "Tucker, you found that hidden in Danny's room," he stated more than asked, referring to the needle.

Tucker attempted not to respond, but Maddie saw something. Her eyes widened. "H-Has he been injecting himself with ectoplasm like some kind of inventive narcotic?" Her voice broke as she asked, "Is this withdrawal?" She suspected Danny could have been into taking drugs, but never something so dangerous!

Jazz stepped up. "No, Mom, it's nothing like that at all!"

"Then tell me what's going on!" Maddie screamed. "Danny isn't...he isn't breathing and _you kids_ knew this would happen!" With the realization, her sudden anger melted with a choked a sob. Danny had begged them not to inject him and so had his friends. "And we didn't listen," she admitted, fighting in vain against more tears before burying her face into her palms.

Jazz paused only a moment before kneeling down next to her mother and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault, Mom," she said truthfully. "You're right, we have been hiding something."

Maddie raised her head expectantly, as did Jack.

"Jazz," Sam said slowly in cautious warning.

She ignored her. "Let's make a deal: allow Sam to try to help Danny and if doesn't work we'll tell you everything. But if it does...he can tell you himself, okay?" Jazz reasoned with an encouraging half-smile.

Maddie took a shaky breath as she considered the proposal.

"You really think this will work?" Jack asked the trio skeptically.

"I do," Jazz responded with a nod.

Tucker nodded as well.

Sam said with absolute conviction, "It has to."

Jack looked each of them in the eye. He saw pain, but more importantly he saw hope. They really thought they could bring his son back to life. Making a decision, he nodded his head curtly as well. "Do it."

"Jack!" Maddie gasped, twisting around to see him.

"They were right before and I didn't listen. I'm not going to make the same mistake again," he said, "and if there's any chance of bringing our son back to us...shouldn't we take it?"

Maddie's eyes welled up again. She shook her head quickly. "You're right," she whispered in a cracked voice before turning back to the kids. "Okay, I trust you."

Jazz immediately grasped her mom in a tight hug. "Thank you," she said into her hair.

Maddie returned her daughter's embrace.

Sam wasted no time. She slid the needle into Danny's upper arm below the burn from Technus, just as the Guys and White had. As the ectoplasmic liquid disappeared under his skin, Danny's loved ones stilled with anticipation. When the last of it was gone, Sam slowly pulled out the needle, noting with a sinking heart that blood didn't seep from the small wound. The little fact only confirmed his lack of heartbeat. She stepped back, giving Danny space and allowing herself to observe him from a distance.

Maddie readjusted her son so he lay comfortably on his back and propped a pillow under his head. Tears still streamed steadily down her face. Wanting to do more for her baby, she settled on taking Danny's hand in hers.

"He's cold," she observed with a hitch in her breath. Maddie began rubbing his hand with hers as if warming it would bring him back to her.

"Why don't we give him some room," Jazz suggested. "All of us," she extended, catching Sam's attention.

"We can sit in the kitchen," Tucker added.

"I don't—"

"Maddie," Jack cut her off, "Jazz is right. Let's give him space."

"I'm staying right here," she responded, steadfast.

There was a moment of silence as the loved ones waited. Several minutes passed, though Danny still produced no signs of life.

"Jazz, you have to tell us something," Maddie said suddenly.

"Mom, I _can't_," Jazz stressed. "Please, just wait until he wakes up."

"_If_ he wakes up!" Maddie corrected. "Jazz, honey, just tell us. What happened? How can Danny need ectoplasm? For him to need it to live is just – it's impossible!"

Jazz stumbled. How could she satisfy her parents without blowing Danny's secret? Or should she just tell them? She groaned, running her hands through her hair, then turned to Sam and Tucker. "A little help, guys?" she asked.

"Uh," Tucker stalled.

Sam stepped forward forward. "He was afraid to tell you, but it's his secret, Mrs. Fenton" she said quietly, trying to find an easy way out.

"Then how long?" Maddie persisted.

"How long until what?" Jazz asked, confused.

"Until he wakes up!"

"We don't know," Tucker responded when Jazz couldn't. "It could be hours."

"Or minutes," Sam added in a daze. She was staring at Danny on the couch in wonder. "His arm is..."

Everyone followed her gaze.

Jack gasped. "Didn't he used to have a burn on his arm?" he asked in amazement. The raw, first degree burn from Technus was now gone. There may have been a tint of red left, like a sunburn, but Jack couldn't be sure it wasn't just his imagination trying to make sense of it.

"But it was—" Maddie started. She leaned over Danny. "It's gone from his other arm as well!" she announced, astonished.

"It's working! Tucker, it's working!" Sam smiled.

"Already?" Tucker whispered to her.

"Phantom's healing power must be aiding him at full strength now, just like you said. Plus, I gave him the entire bottle of that green stuff. I used to give him only half at a time when he needed it," she whispered in return with a hint of mischief in her voice.

"Sam!" Tucker chided. "It's risky enough you had to give it to him in his human form! It could've —"

"What? Killed him? He's already dead. Not like he could get much worse!"

"Fair point," Tucker admitted.

"Mom, you should really get back from him," Jazz prodded her mother.

"Jazz, stop pestering! I told you I'm not mov—Ah!" Maddie yelped, ripping her hands from Danny's. Bright white rings had suddenly appeared around his waist.

"No!" Sam and Tucker screamed simultaneously, but there was no stopping the rings as they began to spread slowly over Danny's body. However, when the rings disappeared at his head and toes, Danny was still human. Nothing appeared to have changed.

"What was _that_?" Jack asked.

Maddie shared her husband's shock, though she was too flabbergasted for words. She cautiously leaned over her son's unmoving form and, after a moment of thought, slowly pressed two fingers under Danny's ear once more. "Oh my God, his heart is—"

Suddenly Danny jolted.

Maddie screamed.

His back arched and his mouth opened. Air rushed into his lungs and came out again in rough coughs that racked his whole body. His head lifted up off the pillow before crashing back down, fighting all the while for more air.

"My baby!" Maddie yelled. Her husband, daughter, and son's friends mirrored her cry of joy. She flung her arms around her boy. "I was so worried! I thought..." she broke off, sobbing.

Jazz caught sight of Danny's eyes wide with fear. "Mom!" she warned, but it was too late.

Danny struggled to breathe and adjust to his pounding heart. His eyes opened to a figure clinging to him, causing more pain in his chest. In his panic, he lost control as his instinctual need to get away won over. His body flickered intangible. The figure on top of him slipped through his form and he rolled away through the back of the couch.

Maddie and Jack bolted to their feet. "What just hap—Where—?" Maddie stuttered.

Sam and Tucker ran around to the other side of the couch. Danny was there on the floor, tangible again, gasping heavily on his back and gripping at his chest.

"Danny," Sam asked softly for his attention, kneeling down to his level without smothering him. "Hey, you okay?" Her eyes watered in overwhelming relief.

The ghost boy took a slow, controlled breath before unclenching his eyes and fist. The pain had begun to disperse as quickly as it had come. "Ugh, what happened?" he groaned, attempting to sit up.

Sam and Tucker helped him. "You don't remember?" Tucker questioned.

Danny absentmindedly rubbed at his ribcage. He proper himself up with an arm behind him. "The Guys White were here..." he began aloud.

"They injected you with your parent's weapon and you kind of, um...died. For about twenty minutes." Tucker finished for him.

Maddie appeared around the edge of the couch, hands covering her mouth.

"You went _through_ the couch," Jack stated dumbly, standing beside his wife.

Jazz darted between her brother and parents. "Mom, Dad, it's not what it looks like," she said quickly, barricading with her arms.

Danny blanched. He suddenly realized he was on the floor behind the furniture. His parents saw him phase through the couch! Another wave of panic flooded through him. The thought of disappearing barely crossed his mind before his body suddenly flickered invisible.

Maddie screamed a sob through her hands. Her emotions couldn't handle all the confusion. One minute her son was dead, the next he was alive, and now he was exhibiting ghost powers. "Jazz, are you going to tell me that's normal, too?"

"Gah! Stop it!" Danny's disembodied voice berated himself. He quickly became visible again. "I'm wired. I can't control it!" His ghost powers coursed through him. The smallest nudges seemed to be setting them off!

"Sam, you want to explain this one?" Tucker asked sardonically.

Danny waited for Sam's reply. He steadied his hands in preparation and concentration.

"Um, I may have given you a whole bottle of the green stuff in your wall," Sam confessed.

Danny's jaw dropped in shock. "You gave me a whole bottle of purified ecto-energy? Sam!"

"It was an emergency!"

"Danny, I'm really glad you're okay, but you've got to tell them something!" Jazz interrupted, referring to her parents. She couldn't hold them off much longer.

Danny switched his focus. He realized the aching, out-of-breath feeling he'd just experienced felt the same as two days ago when he'd woken up in the warehouse. Once again he'd died and come back. Danny could accept that. Unfortunately, his parents looked about ready to faint. "Guys, I can explain," Danny finally told them.

Jack tilted his head to this side. "That you're a ghost?" he asked, though not necessarily in an accusatory manner. He was confused. His son had just come back to him from his own mistake, so the father was willing to listen if it meant his Danny was still the same person – only with previously hidden secrets now a little more transparent. "Your friends said you have ectoplasm in you that's been keeping you alive for years... but that's not possible."

"Yes and no," Danny said, unable to meet his parents' gazes. "Yes, I've had ectoplasm in me for a few years. Explains all your inventions going off around me, huh? It's not 'keeping me alive', though. It's a part of me I can't live without." Danny felt the instantaneous need to look up at them. "But I _am_ alive," Danny assured.

"How?" Maddie asked through her fingers.

Danny's shoulders drooped. She didn't believe him and the word stung more than it should've. "Mom, you have to understand I'm still me," he whispered. "I'm still the same person. I...I just hid this from you."

Maddie's eyes went wide. She quickly brought her hands down from her face. "No, no. Oh, honey, I'm sorry! I do believe you. I meant how did this happen? When?"

Danny loosened a small smile. There was his acceptance right there. That was all he needed. And if his mom believed him, Dad wasn't far behind. "The portal," he said simply. "I was inside when I accidentally turned it on." His smile grew into a sheepish grin.

Danny's father gasped. "_You_ got the portal working? Well, thanks, son!"

"Jack!" Maddie scolded. "Danny you knew you weren't allowed down there alone. It's dangerous!"

"Yeah, Sam, the lab is dangerous," Danny smiled at his friends. He had to show his parents he wasn't worried about what had been done to him. Plus, someone had to lighten the mood.

"Still not apologizing, Danny!"

Danny rolled his eyes and chuckled. He moved to get to his feet, but the slight thought of getting up off the ground mistakenly sent him floating upwards. "Ah!" he yelped, "down, down, down!" Within a few seconds, his gravity-defying ability shut off like a switch at his commands and he fell back down on his feet. "A whole bottle, Sam? Really?" he whined.

"You know what: I'm not going to apologize for that, either!" she scoffed, getting up as well.

Jack childishly tugged on his wife's hazmat suit. "Maddie...Did Danny just...?" he trailed off in a daze.

"He did," Maddie confirmed, attempting to recover as well. She cleared her throat. "Sweetie," the mother addressed Danny gently, "help me understand, here. You fell through the couch, then you turned invisible, and now you can fly?" She tried to state the facts, but they were so unbelievable, she couldn't help but end in a question. "You know what? I think I need to sit down," she said, changing her mind.

"Good idea," Jazz breathed. "Now can we go to the kitchen?"

Maddie nodded, leading the way.

Danny flinched. Revealing such a huge secret that changed the way his parents thought about their family and their profession simultaneously was in the process of being a huge shock no matter how lightly he delivered it. Almost dying and then using his powers in front them was already a low blow. From now on, he had to be really careful if he wanted them to continue to trust him.

Danny sat at the kitchen table across from his parents. Sam sat to his left while Jazz and Tucker mediated the ends.

"You kids don't seem to be as surprised as we are by Danny's... ghost powers," Maddie realized. "It's like you're only surprised they're not responding the way Danny wants them to."

Danny bit his lips, bringing his hand up behind his neck in nervousness. "I...The powers came with the ectoplasm from the portal. So I've had them for over three years now. I can control them. Just...Sam gave me too much ecto-energy – which is okay!" he said quickly, raising he hands in reassurance. "It'll wear off by tomorrow, I'm sure."

There was a pause to allow the information to sink in, then Jack bounced in his seat.

"So what all powers do you have?" Jack asked a little too excitedly.

Jazz giggled. Maddie side-glanced her husband in awe for asking such a straightforward question.

However, Danny hesitated. Sam, Tucker and Jazz watched him expectantly. Now was another moment of truth – a fork in the road. He could list all of his powers and in turn tell them he was Phantom, or...

"Only a few," Danny said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I can fly, make myself invisible and intangible, and I heal a bit faster than average," he confessed. Having reminded himself, Danny pulled at his right elbow and silently noted for himself that Technus' burn marks were gone without scarring. "That's why Sam gave me the ecto–energy. I needed the ectoplasm boost to heal."

"I believe you, Danny, honest," Maddie swore, "but I can't understand how just the ectoplasm could've...saved you. Without your circulatory system, how could it have traveled your body to heal you? Then there were those bright rings—"

"Rings?" Danny gaped. He looked to his friends for an answer, but his mother continued.

"Oh, right, you weren't awake yet," Maddie told him. "Maybe a few seconds before you woke up, these bright white rings made of – I don't know, some kind of energy? – appeared around your waste! They traveled over you and then just disappeared!"

"You didn't look any different afterwards," Tucker put in helpfully.

"I-I don't know," Danny said, trying to look surprised. "I'm still learning about all this stuff. Sometimes things happen I can't explain," he said truthfully.

"These powers...the ectoplasm...You're sure they're not hurting you?" Maddie asked out of concern.

"Not at all!" Danny replied. "I'm fact, I like my powers," he said smiling.

"And you're not a ghost?" Jack questioned.

Danny swallowed a subtle lump in his throat. "I'm not dead," he repeated, afraid telling them he wasn't a ghost would a be a tangled lie in the long run.

"It's getting late," Jazz said. "Sam and Tucker need to get home and I'm sure Danny needs rest. We can talk more after school tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me, Jazzy-pants!" Jack agreed.

As everyone got to their feet, Danny thought briefly about how nice it would be to get a good night's sleep for once when he suddenly vanished in a puff of green smoke.

"Danny!" Maddie cried, reaching out to air he'd once occupied. He wasn't there!

"Damn it!" came an exasperated cry from upstairs. Then, "What happened to my wall!"

Tucker winced. "I knew he'd be mad."

With a smooth *pop* and a little more green smoke, Danny appeared downstairs again in the kitchen doorframe. "You destroyed my wall, too?"

"Tucker did it!"

"Sam told me to!"

"Really, Danny, you shouldn't hide your emergency medical supply _inside_ the wall," Jazz joined in.

"Maddie...he poofed to his room and back," Jack said in shock.

Danny flinched and slowly turned to his shocked parents. He chuckled, bringing his hand back up to the back of his neck again. "Oh, yeah. I can kind of teleport, too. A little," he amended nervously.

Maddie put a hand up to her head. "Maybe we should all get a good night's rest," she suggested. "Sam, Tucker, I assume you'll be here tomorrow?"

Sam and Tucker both nodded, catching Danny's grateful smile.

"Alright. Goodnight, everyone," Maddie said.

"'Night!" Jack called before following his wife to their bedroom.

Danny moved out of the doorway to let them pass. When he heard the bedroom door shut, he said, "Well that went...OK."

"OK? Of course it did. You didn't even tell them the most important part!" Jazz whispered harshly.

"I will!" Danny bit back. "Just not today. Mom was only barely handling it; I didn't want to jinx it."

"Do you want us to stay over, Danny?" Sam asked.

"No, you guys go home. I'm think I'm going to fly around a bit. Need to burn this excess energy so I don't fall through my bed in the middle of the night...again," Danny added sheepishly.

"Gotcha. See you at school, dude," Tucker said.

Sam waved goodbye and walked out the front door with Tucker, each heading toward their respective homes.

"Don't wait up," Danny said to Jazz when the door closed. He then transformed into Phantom.

The rings were so bright this time that Jazz had to shield her eyes. By the time she opened them, Danny was already gone.

"I always do," she whispered to herself.

* * *

**Almost 5,000 words, guys! Hope it was worth the wait! In my outline, I simply wrote that Sam would give Danny the ecto-energy, but then Maddie took on a life of her own and wouldn't let her! So that cost an extra 1,500 words or so! haha!**

**I was worried about this because I knew I had to let the characters drive it or it wouldn't work. But keeping up with all of them - each progressing emotions at different speeds - was tough! And, of course, I had to add a bit of (hopefully well-timed) humor in there. I think Danny is like me: he tells jokes when he's nervous. I expect Sam and Tucker know how to play off that to help ease the tension.**

**Also, I know the revealing-his-secret thing is very overplayed but enjoyable if done right, so I tried to put as much unique twist on it as I could. You Like?**

**Thank you all for the support! I passed my classes and even got a ****_PERFECT SCORE_**** on my University Physics 2 final! WOOT! Hopefully I'll have quicker updates for you while I have these 2 weeks off. This is kind of the first-half-arc of this story...I think ...I need to work on expanding my outline first XD**

**Thank you so much for the OVERWHELMING number of reviews last chapter! You all are ****_amazing!_**

**_Questions? Comments? Reactions? LUNCH! Please review!_**


	10. The Plan

Uploaded 8/17/13

Chapter 10: The Plan

Phantom tore through the night. His core raced, feeling more powerful than ever. Danny's entire body seemed to vibrate with the excess energy that only intensified upon changing into his ghost form.

"Ah! Too much power!" he yelled, spinning uncontrollably. Danny flung out his arms and concentrated on staying tangible. Adding drag would help to slow him down.

Though not soon enough. Phantom crashed into the ground, ripping up a trail of grass ten feet long as he tumbled and scraped to a stop.

"Ow," Danny grumbled. He fixed himself upright.

Phantom picked himself up and yet almost immediately noticed that he no longer ached. Any bruises he'd gotten in the fall must have already healed.

"It's been two seconds!" Danny whispered to himself. He groaned. Still too much energy. This healing thing was great and all, but it scared him. In just the past few days, his whole world seemed to have spiraled out of control. Heck, it still was! Never before had so many people been so close to discovering his secret all at once. Not in this reality, anyway. And then there was Technus and the Guys in White.

Danny squeezed his eyes shut. This was too much - he needed to calm down. Opening his eyes again, he found he'd landed on the outskirts of Amity's Central Park.

Phantom took a step, then decided a walk was a good idea, so he continued. The rhythmic movement immediately began to comfort him. With his hand, the ghost boy created a shapeless ice crystal and allowed it to spin on a whim as he thought, which was also comforting as well as good for slowly draining off his power surge.

Danny looked down at the hovering crystal. Should he have told his parents about this power as well?

He set his jaw. No. Phantom had unique powers. If his parents knew he could create and manipulate ice, it could be the only thing they needed to make the connection. For the same reason, he would have to keep the rest of his powers secret as well. Especially his ghostly wail.

Phantom sighed as the ice formed into his ghost insignia: the 'DP' symbol.

The ghost world and eventually the residents of Amity Park all found about his most powerful weapon - and he became known for it, much to his regret. But when one powerful ghost after another wanted to take over the world, what was he to do? The wail sent new ghosts reeling back. It allowed him to proclaim the town as his and even brought down the average number of ghost attacks over time. Some of his frequent old enemies eventually began to hold a certain level of respect for him - albeit the slightly fearful kind. It wasn't preferred, but if his town was safe, he was okay with that.

Except that the Fentons weren't.

Danny still hadn't gotten a chance to become accustomed to the attack; instead of growing a tolerance to it, the wail grew stronger each time he used it. In turn, his overall power level increased. Like Tucker said, he was a nine now and his parents were - for lack of a better word - scared of him. The way they saw it, he had the potential energy to destroy the town in minutes. He was a threat. A very powerful one.

And they were right.

That's why he couldn't tell his parents he was Phantom. Jazz thought if he told them, they would realize he wasn't a threat. They would stop hunting him and he would be safe. Sure, but that's not what Danny was concerned about. As Phantom, Danny was one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost Zone. If they knew he and Phantom were one and the same, there was no way his parents would look at him the same way again. And if he saw fear in their eyes for even a moment... Danny didn't think he could handle it.

No, telling his parents the truth wasn't a risk he was willing to take. His mom was smart, though. What if she found out on her own? He did look strikingly similar to his ghost half. Over these past years, he was afraid someone would notice that Phantom grew older alongside him. There was a possibility his mom didn't need to see any unique powers to make the connection.

Danny morphed the crystal into a diamond shape with a deep breath. There was nothing he could do but be careful and try to keep her off the idea.

Then there was Dash and Kwan. They definitely knew more than they were letting on. Unfortunately, he still had no way of knowing exactly what that was without asking - and that was still way too dangerous.

Danny concentrated on walking and shaping the crystal for the next few minutes. Eventually, he came across the park fountain. The water flowed smoothly, which was interesting because the park manager usually turned it off just after sunset. Phantom allowed the crystal to dissipate, then lightly dipped his gloved index finger under the flowing water. Instantly, every drop of water froze. Even the splatters in midair solidified and fell with clinks into the bowls below them.

At last, Phantom could control his powers again, though he wasn't sure if that was because the excess energy had worn off or if he'd simply gotten used to it. Danny shrugged. Control was all he could ask for at the moment. The last thing he wanted to do was go to school while his powers acted up. It'd be like year one all over again!

Technus certainly didn't made his situation easier there, either. The tech ghost was one of the many who had enough respect for him to keep his ghost life away from his human identity. He knew better than to test Danny like that. It could be all the push Dash, Kwan, Mom, or Dad needed to discover his secret!

Which once more begged the question: What was so important that Technus felt the need to put both of their lives at risk?

Phantom straightened, realizing something. He closed his eyes and reached out with his senses. Still nothing. Another night of no ghosts. Technus aside, he hadn't seen one in over three days! Yes, something was definitely up. Whether they were in trouble or planning something, Danny didn't know. Was another Paria Dark-like incident arising? Oh, it better not be Vlad. He was supposed to be in Japan on a business trip or something.

Phantom flexed his hand. Had Vlad discovered the quirk in their healing ability? Danny knew Plasmius had an increased healing factor as well - Phantom had done enough damage to tell that much. If Plasmius had the ability, he doubted Vlad knew about it. Otherwise, he never would have felt the need to poison his friends with ecto-achne just to force Danny to find the cure. Well, unless it was poisoning his ectoplasm. Then Vlad really would have died for good.

Danny shivered. He'd technically died twice this week, if only temporarily. Who else could say that?

Suddenly he remembered something Jazz had told him back when she volunteered as an on-site psychologist at the hospital. A nurse there had told her there was a saying: catastrophes happen in threes. It's a phenomenon sometimes so predictable that if Amity Park hosts two severe car accidents in the same week, the hospital overstaffs for the next few days in preparation. The thought chilled him.

Danny shook his head. Why was he worried? Even if he did die again, as long as his ectoplasm levels were okay, he'd come back.

Admittedly, though...it was scary. Like being a ghost, but so much worse. That void. It was nothingness and loneliness. To feel nothing...to have all your senses and memories taken from you with only the itching feeling that something was missing to cling to. If Tucker hadn't told him he'd just been for twenty minutes, he wouldn't have known the difference between twenty seconds and twenty years on his own.

Phantom shot up into the air. He couldn't keep thinking about the past like this. Other than vent his thoughts and clear his head, it did nothing other than remind him there was nothing he could do.

He somersaulted through the clouds, clearing his head of any stray negative thoughts and dispelling enough energy to make for a comfortable nights' rest. Better to get sleep now while the ghosts were gone because Danny had a fleeting feeling that catastrophes really do happen in threes.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked as Danny approached his friends at their lockers.

"Odd," Danny replied honestly. He shrugged. "My parents know I have powers and the ghosts gave me another night off. I don't know whether to be happy or really, really worried."

"Let's start with 'happy' until we have a reason not to," Tucker said, flashing a smile as he closed his locker.

Sam nodded in agreement and asked, "Did your parents say anything this morning?"

Danny shook his head, opening his own locker. "No, I never saw them. I couldn't tell if they were still in bed or down in the lab already."

"I'm sorry," Sam sympathized.

Books in hand, Danny jerked his head up. "It's fine, really," he said quickly, bringing up the corners of his mouth in a hasty smile. "I gave them a lot to think about. I'll see them tonight," he said, then closed his locker. "We have Lancer today, don't we?"

"Ugh, we'll never be rid of him," Tucker droned, leading the way.

Sam touched Danny's arm, holding him back. "You sure you're okay?" she whispered hesitantly. "You know you can tell me."

"Sam, I'm alright. I promise," he reassured her. His smile reached his eyes this time. "I did a lot of thinking last night in the park. I'm going to be extra careful around Dash and Kwan, I'll talk to my parents tonight, and after that I'm checking on the Ghost Zone to find out what's going there. I've got it figured out. Trust me," Danny said confidently.

Rolling her eyes, Sam smiled in return. "Of course I trust you! You can't blame me for asking," she said. The bell rang, so she nudged his shoulder. "C'mon, ghost boy. We should get to class."

"See? If anyone's going to reveal my secret, it'll be you, not me!" Danny laughed, running ahead.

Sam chased after him as he rounded the corner. "And if anyone is going to jinx it, it'll be - oh, no," she hitched, slowing to a stop.

As Sam turned the corner, she found Danny back-stepping toward her in the hall. Two Guys in White agents were walking out of Lancer's classroom. Sam noticed immediately that they were the same agents who injected Danny with his parents' serum the night before.

"What do you want?" Danny asked with a certain animosity he couldn't keep hidden.

Mr. Lancer himself followed the operatives into the hall. "Ah, there you are, Mr. Fenton. These gentleman say they want to speak with you." He hadn't caught Danny's tone of voice.

At that moment, Tucker, Dash, Kwan, and many other students crammed into the doorway for a peek at the action. It wasn't every day government agents walked into their domain.

Sam walked up to Danny from behind. He heard her approach and reflexively clenched his hands into fists at his side with the confidence she gave him.

"I don't have anything to say to you," Danny declared.

"That's fine. All you have to do is listen," the Caucasian operative retorted. He lifted his chin and smiled in a way that caused Danny's regime to melt.

"I'd rather just go to class," he said warily. Danny took a step toward the door, but the African agent grabbed him by the arm.

"Didn't that ghost burn your arms yesterday?" He flicked up Danny's short sleeve with his other hand. "There isn't a mark on you," he said, raising an eyebrow.

The students gasped and started to whisper.

"That technology ghost burned him, I know he did."

"You're right I saw it, too!"

"Shouldn't he at least have a scar or something?"

"Leave him alone!" Sam demanded of the Guys in White.

Danny jerked his arm free of the man's grip and yanked his sleeve back down with clenched teeth.

"We can either talk here or in private," the Caucasian agent proposed, still smiling wickedly. "You're choice."

Danny forced himself to stay calm. He couldn't overreact here before he even knew what this was about.

Sam gripped his wrist, causing him to flinch.

"Don't let them hurt you," she whispered, then nodded and let go, stepping away.

Danny swallowed, meeting the operatives' eyes with his own narrowing ones. "Fine," he said sharply.

"This way," the African agent said, walking toward him with his partner. Sam was pushed against the wall as the operatives came upon either side of Danny, who was roughly twisted around to be led down the hall.

Dash chuckled. "Now he's in trouble," he whispered. "Freak."

Danny was prodded down several hallways until he stumbled into the empty cafeteria.

Finally alone, Danny turned back around to face the agents. "What? You didn't harass me enough yesterday?"

The Caucasian agent stepped forward, taking lead of the confrontation. "What do you have to do with ghosts?" he asked straightforward.

Danny gaped. "Nothing!" he retorted convincingly.

"I don't think I believe you," the agent replied. He motioned to his partner, who began to open the white briefcase he carried with him. "We discovered something interesting after leaving your house last night," the Caucasian continued.

"Don't you guys sleep?" Danny whined to himself while eyeing the African agent carefully.

Out of the briefcase, he pulled a small, clear Ziploc bag with an orange evidence sticker covering one side. The operative then handed it to his partner.

"We acquired this yesterday," he said, holding up the bag for Danny to see. Inside was a round, copper piece of metal.

Danny's breath caught in his throat. His jaw slackened. That couldn't be what he thought it was...

"We found traces of ectoplasm in the blood found on this bullet just as we found ectoplasm in yours," the agent explained. "Naturally, we cross-examined the samples."

Danny couldn't breathe. This wasn't happening!

"So, I ask you," the agent said with a threatening step forward, "Are you one of them?"

Danny stepped back. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," he stuttered.

The agent stopped his procession, straightening his posture. "Classic," he said as if he was simply unimpressed. "Fortunately for you, I only need you to listen. We've been working on something - a weapon, of course - with the help of your parents. That serum was only part of it. We took their research in a slightly different direction. That talkative tech ghost you encountered yesterday was a result of our experiment."

"That was you? You did that to him!" Danny gasped.

The agent smirked. "Is that sympathy, I hear?"

Danny paled, quickly hardening his expression.

"That's what I thought," the agent went on. "This war between ghosts and humans is tiresome. We seek to end it. The weapon we've created is similar to your parents' with the exception of two major differences. One: it's an aerosol; and two: it's already been dispersed throughout the ghost world."

Danny screamed in panic, "No! You can't do that; it's genocide!"

"It's war, Daniel!" the agent burst. "I don't know who or what you are, although I have enough evidence to arrest you right now to find out," he paused, soaking in Danny's terrified look with satisfaction, "but I have a better idea. I want you to tell all your ghosty friends that this war is over. That they have lost. Because once the ghost world has been gassed, we are releasing the weapon in the human world as well."

Without waiting for Danny's response, the agent handed the evidence bag back to his partner, who carefully returned it to his briefcase. With a curt nod that the package was secure, the two strutted toward the cafeteria doors.

The Caucasian paused halfway out, deciding as an afterthought to tell Danny one more thing. "I don't care about discovering exactly what you are because, frankly, if you are one of them, you will die with them. It will be all the evidence I'll need, so you'd better choose which side you're on, Daniel."

With that, he left. The large door hissed, then shut with an echoing bang.

Danny stumbled back. His knees shook. This was so much worse than the revelation of his secret. The entire Ghost Zone was about to disappear...and so was he. For good.

And Danny didn't know how to stop it.

* * *

**Don't mind me, I'm just going to crouch in this dark corner and twist my hands together as I laugh maniacally. **

**The first half was very difficult to write because it wasn't planned, but I realized...character development. *sigh***

**Hopefully all of your questions have been answered now, yes? At least I think I got everything you gave me in the reviews. I've been ****_waiting_**** for this chapter to show you ****_everything is connectedddddd!_**** HAHAHAHA!**

**I told a few of you I start classes on the 26th. And with titles such as ****_Circuits_****, ****_Differential Equations_****, and ****_Algebra and Programming Design _****I don't know if I'll still be ****_alive_**** let alone able to write in my spare time! So stay by your computers or ****_follow_**** because I'm dishing these out as fast as I can! I have at least 3 chapters left, possibly 4. This'll be a tight race!**

**PLEASE review! I absolutely love reading your reactions/predictions/comments and if you review while I'm writing, I'll PM back! THANK YOU!**


	11. Convincing

Uploaded 8/24/13

Chapter 11: Convincing

Phantom sped home masked in invisibility. He'd already texted Sam and Tucker that he was alright but needed to talk to his parents, which couldn't wait. Danny knew better than to tell them exactly what was happening. If he did, they'd try to come with him and they needed to stay in school. Without a distraction, all three of them disappearing at once would only get all three of them in trouble.

Technically, he wasn't lying about needing to talk to his parents. Danny didn't know how to stop what the Guys in White were doing to the Ghost Zone or even how bad the situation was, but there was a chance his inventive parents could figure something out. After all, the serum was originally their invention.

Danny scoffed at the irony. Whatever the outcome, he was going to hear about this from Jazz later.

Arriving to his backyard, Phantom landed in a sprint. His transformation rings washed over him, changing Danny back into his human form while simultaneously bringing him back to the visible plane.

Without slowing, Danny phased through the backdoor yelling, "Mom? Dad!" He skidded to a halt in the kitchen. "Mom?" Were they home?

"Danny, is that you?" Maddie called from the lab.

Skipping a reply, the ghost boy dashed to the basement door, this time opening it before running down the stairs. Even though they knew he had powers, Danny wasn't sure his parents would be comfortable with him walking through stuff just yet.

"I have a question," Jack began as Danny finished leaping down the stairs. He had swiveled around in his chair, having been in the process of observing slide samples under a microscope. "Why don't you just phase through the door and float down the stairs? Do you usually do that when we aren't around or is using your powers actually more wasteful of energy?"

"Uh...," Danny stalled. Or, maybe they didn't mind at all.

"Jack!" Maddie scolded, lifting up her goggles. "Danny, shouldn't you be at school? It's okay; we can wait to talk when you get out."

Danny jerked. "The Ghost Zone!" he gasped, ignoring his mother as he snapped back from his father's distraction. "The Guys in White just told me they're using the serum you invented to gas it!" He ran over to the portal and began checking the access log on the consol. "They haven't been doing it from here, have they?" Danny asked while frantically, yet expertly pushing buttons and checking gauges.

Jack scratched his head. "No, but...Son, isn't that a good thing? It's brilliant, actually! Well, except we'll kinda be outta the job..."

Danny turned, gaping as his parents' confused expressions. "A good thing? It's terrible! Every single ghost is going to die if I don't stop it!" Danny said, briefly bringing his hands up to pull at his hair in exasperation. "Can you guys make an antidote? Please tell me you can make an antidote!" he begged.

"Danny, what is going on?" Maddie asked, stepping forward in attempt to calm her son. "Why are you so stressed out over this? Ghosts are evil and mindless-"

"No, they aren't!" Danny interrupted loudly. "Not all ghosts are evil and some are even civilized," he admitted, thinking of Clockwork and his allies in the Far Frozen. "I can't let them die. Please, I need your help!"

Maddie frowned. "What are you-? Of course all ghosts are evil! It's in their nature - a part of their biology. They're just echoes of post-human consciousness. They-"

"They're my friends!" Danny shouted desperately. His hands flung down in fists at his side.

Maddie's jaw slacked with shock. She straightened her back, eyes widening.

"What did you say?" Jack asked in quiet disbelief.

Danny's teeth quivered. His entire body shook out of anxiety. This was dangerous. He should just tell his parents the truth now. Get it over with! They would believe him if he _showed_ them the Phantom they thought was evil was him all along. If Phantom wasn't evil, it would disprove their theories. They'd have to trust him!

But just as Danny opened his mouth to tell them the truth, he saw something in his parents' expressions he never wanted to see. Though the confusion was still there, he could swear he now saw _fear_.

The ghost boy mentally backpedaled. He couldn't do it. At least not while they looked at him like that. If they were scared of him now - even a little - the whole revelation could backfire. His parents would reject him.

He couldn't let that happen.

Danny swallowed. "I mean I know some of them," he explained slowly, restarting under a calmer tone. "Ghosts are just like people: some are nice, some are evil, and most just want to be left alone."

"Danny, they-" Maddie began sadly.

"I know it sounds weird," Danny continued quickly, "and I wouldn't ask you to change your theories if it weren't really important. I just-" he wiped his palms down his face. "Clockwork, Dora, Wulf, the entire realm of the Far Frozen and so many more have done _so_ much for me."

Suddenly, Danny's resolve hardened as if the sadness and stress had been smeared away. Looking squarely at his parents, he said, "I can't let them die without trying," and turned back to the portal to jam his thumb onto the deadlock scanner. The access panel beeped in recognition, signally the portal doors to part. As they did, Danny dashed across the lab past his parents to gather a few small vials and stuffed them into the pockets of his pants.

When Danny jogged back over to the portal, Maddie finally assumed what her son was doing and exclaimed, "Wait, you're not going in there!" She paused as realization continued to hit her. "Stop right now, young man; this isn't funny!"

"I have to check on a few things," Danny said a bit distantly, trying to ignore his mother's panic as he checked the console one last time. "I'll explain when I get back."

"Son, you don't know what's in there! Even we've never been in the Ghost Zone. You can't just walk in; it's too dangerous!" Jack reasoned.

Danny turned to face his parents again. A thought occurred to him. "Normally, I'd disagree with you...but you're right this time." He pointed to a specific gauge on the console and said, "Usually, the Ghost Zone has an energy density of point-five kilojoules per liter, right?"

Dumbfounded, Maddie nodded. "It's about the same as a nickel-metal hydride battery, yes."

"Well, it's at point-three now," Danny said, "so however they're pumping the gas in, it's working."

As Danny turned back to the portal, Maddie leaped forward, grabbing his arm. "I'm not letting you go in there! Dangerous ghosts aside, the gas will hurt you, too!"

Danny flinched. "That reminds me of the other thing the Guys and White told me," he said sullenly. "When they're finished gassing the Ghost Zone, they're going to release it into the human world next."

Gasping, Maddie screamed, "They can't do that! We'll tell them the ectoplasm in you is permanent. I'll explain-"

"Those agents already know and they don't care!" Danny bit back. "They don't care if it kills me, so if you won't make an antidote..."

"I have an idea," Jack declared. "That ecto-energy you had yesterday: Do you have any more?"

Danny patted his pocket. "About to get some," he said.

"No! It's way too dangerous!" Maddie shouted as she gripped her son tighter.

"That gas is only going to get worse, Mom! If I don't leave now, it'll be too late for everyone," Danny reasoned. "I'll be right back, I promise."

"Danny-!"

"Stay here and keep the portal open," the ghost boy cautioned, then phased out of his mother's grasp and disappeared into the swirling green of the Ghost Zone.

Maddie jumped back, shocked by the cold. Had her son just used his powers? She held the chilled hand against her chest before remembering this was who Danny was. Quickly shaking herself back into focus, she turned to her husband. "Jack, we can't let him go in there alone!"

"I don't know... I think we should listen to him, Mads. I'm starting to get the feeling he's been to the Ghost Zone before," Jack mused. "He didn't seem at all bothered by it. Plus, how else could he have found purified ectoplasm in the first place... or get to know friendly ghosts?"

"Friendly ghosts, Jack?" Maddie asked skeptically. "Do you honestly believe him?"

Jack shrugged. "I think we'd better consider it. Danny-boy seems to know an awful lot more about ghosts than we thought he did."

Maddie huffed, plotting down into a roller chair, which scooted back in reaction. "This is too much. He never showed any interests in ghosts and now it's beginning to sound like he knows more than we do!" With a thought, her hand flew up to her mouth. "Could it be he wasn't disinterested in our experiments but scared of them?"

Jack rolled a chair over to his wife and sat down next to her in a silent agreement to wait for their son to return. "You know, I'm a little more worried about why he's keeping ectoplasm in his room."

"Do you think he knew he'd get hurt?" Maddie pondered with a raised brow.

"I think he fights ghosts," Jack proclaimed, "'cause that's what I'd do if I had ghost powers!"

Maddie sighed. "Honey, you already fight ghosts."

"Oh, right."

"But that's a good point. Why would Danny keep purified ectoplasmic energy on hand? Sam knew exactly what she was doing with it, too," Maddie realized.

"I overheard her talking to Tucker," Jack recalled. "She said she usually only gave Danny half when he needed it."

Maddie looked up at her husband, flabbergasted. "He couldn't be fighting...Surely we would have seen him!"

Jack shrugged again. "He _can_ turn invisible."

Propping her elbow up on the chair's arm, Maddie leaned her head onto the tips of her fingers. "I feel like there's so much more he isn't telling us," she wondered aloud. "What if he isn't just goofing off with his friends when he isn't doing school work? What if he's getting hurt and we never noticed? Oh, Jack, are we bad parents?"

The father used his foot to slide his chair closer to his wife's and wrapped his arm around her. "Mads, I know when I was a teenager - if I wanted to hide something from my parents - I knew exactly how to do it. Danny's a smart kid. A smart kid who can disappear if he wanted to! Sweet-cheeks, if he wanted to hide something from us, our son more than anyone could make sure it stayed that way."

"Why would he want to hide this from us? We could help him!"

"Maybe he doesn't want our help," Jack suggested. "He's got his friends - and Jazz, too, by the looks of it."

Maddie rubbed at her forehead. "All we did was invent new ways to capture and torture anything 'ghost'. No wonder he doesn't want to confide in us." She lifted her head up. "When he comes back, we need to make sure he trusts us so he'll open up," she said, smiling weakly.

"Sounds like a plan," Jack said, returning the smile more convincingly than his wife.

For several minutes, the couple sat quietly in each other's comfort, waiting patiently for their son to return. Finally, just as Maddie was about to ask her husband if he thought Danny was still okay, the portal began to swirl anxiously.

"He's back!" she said instead, jumping to her feet.

However, Danny wasn't the figure who flew through the portal. Stumbling to his knee with a loud grunt was a massive metal-armored ghost with weakly flaming green hair whom Maddie and Jack had seen terrorizing the town many times before.

"Thought I'd never get out of there," Skulker groaned as he got to his feet.

Maddie bolted across the lab for a gun. "Weapons, Jack!"

"Eat Fenton Blaster, ghost scum!" Jack announced, pulling a device from seemingly nowhere and firing on the creature.

"Argh!" Skulker cried out as blasts pelted the ghost hunter's armor, knocking him down to his knees again. "Enough!" he yelled, adding fuel to his hair and jet-packing above the assault to assess the ambush. Finding the assaulters to be the ghost child's parents, he seethed, "You! What have you done?"

Before either Jack or Maddie could respond or continue to fire, the alarm over the portal flashed red and blared to life followed immediately by a swarm of indiscernible ghosts streaming through the portal. They wailed, moaned and swerved as they escaped through the ceiling.

Amidst the chaos, Skulker took the opportunity to advance on his prey. He dodged through the swarm, extended a blade in his arm and pinned the female ghost hunter to the wall, using his other arm to fire green goo at her ankles and wrists while almost simultaneously pressing the weapon against her throat.

"Ah!" Maddie gasped, caught off-guard.

"Mads!" Jack screamed, pointing his blaster at the ghost. "Let her go, ghost! Now!"

"Not until you tell me what you did!" Skulker shouted back, pressing the blade farther into Maddie's neck, causing her to squirm. "The energy in the Zone is almost gone. Not enough remains to generate natural portals and the ghosts who can create them are too weak. We only barely escaped!"

The female hunter paused under the pressure. "It wasn't us, but you're welcome for opening the portal," she said sarcastically, lifting her chin in attempt to evade the weapon. Maddie refused to be afraid, but the knife certainly made it difficult. She struggled to keep her breathing regular even as her heart raced and her muscles quivered against the bonds.

The ghostly hunter scoffed, "How stupid do you think I am? Fix it!"

"Leave her alone, Skulker!"

The ghost turned, leaning his own back against the wall and flipping Maddie to press the knife under her chin from behind.

Maddie now obtained a clear view of the lab. Standing powerfully with his hand raised next to a large yeti-like ghost was Danny Phantom. The river of beasts that continued to spew from the open portal veered around him as if his aura alone scared them off, though a small army of yetis were beginning to gather behind him.

"Stop the rest of them, Frostbite," Phantom said without breaking eye contact with the hunter holding his mother hostage. "I've got Skulker."

The yeti looked worriedly between Maddie and Phantom. "Are you sure?" he asked with concern.

Phantom nodded sharply. "Go," he ordered.

Nodding curtly in return, Frostbite turned and motioned his comrades to follow him through the ceiling.

At the movement, Jack flicked his weapon toward the newcomers. "Back off, Phantom!" he warned before pointing it toward Skulker once again. Phantom was by far more powerful, but the ghost threatening his wife was instantaneously more dangerous.

Danny's face softened at the action of mistrust. Choosing to otherwise ignore his dad, Phantom continued to address Skulker. "You know you can't hurt her," he said, accentuating the echo in his voice ever so slightly.

The ghost snickered. "Why? Because Plasmius says so? "

Danny's eyes narrowed as he pressed more blue energy into his palm. "Because you decided to make this personal and I'm not asking," he said.

Maddie hitched a breath. She had a knife held to her throat and now an energy beam pointed at her head. "Jack," she whispered with more than a little fear in her voice.

"In case you haven't noticed, ghost child, you have made me very desperate." He gestured to the thinning swarm. "You do realize what you've started in the Zone, don't you? This is a war you've created!"

"'_I've_ created'? You think I want the Ghost Zone drained of energy? Destroying one world would collapse _both_ of them and on top of that you retaliate by attacking people! I didn't create it; I'm trying to stop it!"

Suddenly a call came from upstairs. "Mom, Dad! There are ghosts everywhere; everyone's panicking!"

Maddie tensed and desperately shouted, "Jazz, stay back!" while Jack - who stood at the foot of the stairs - threw up his hand to stop her.

Skulker turned his head toward Jack in an attempt to see if the girl listened, but in that moment, Danny used the distraction to teleport directly in front of Maddie and slammed his charged hand into the side of Skulker's helmet above her head, instantly freezing the ghost.

With Skulker disabled, Phantom's powerful body language immediately melted into that of concern. He glanced between Jack and Maddie. "Sorry, do you mind if I...?" Danny hesitated, waving his hands for an indecisive moment before deciding to freeze and shatter Skulker's ectoplasmic bonds, then take his mother's shoulder and phase her out of the hunter's frozen hold.

Maddie shivered in response to being briefly intangible, but soon rounded on Phantom. "You almost shot me!" she accused.

Danny openly gaped at his mother. "I just sav-!" He pointed at Skulker and started again. "I was aiming for his head. I wasn't going to shoot you!"

Maddie backed away toward her husband while Jack pointed his weapon at Phantom once more.

Hearing the argument, Jazz ran down the stairs to find the last of the ghosts exiting the portal and Danny Phantom precariously close to her parents.

Danny raised his hands in peace, adopting an apologetic expression. "Look, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you. I was just trying to help."

"We don't need your help, ghost!" Jack retorted, firing his blaster.

"No!" Jazz screamed.

Thinking fast, Danny flicked his wrists, effectively absorbing the shot with a temporary energy shield.

Jack made to fire again, but Jazz pushed him, knocking off his aim. The shot went wide, instead hitting the table behind Phantom. Danny retreated a few steps, but didn't fly away. Meanwhile, Maddie ran across the lab for a weapon of her own.

"Get out of here!" Jazz told her brother. "What are you doing?"

"Skulker won't stay frozen for long," Danny warned.

"It's fine. I'll get him. You go up and help everyone else!"

Just as Maddie fired another blaster, Danny bolted up through the ceiling. The shot only missed him by inches.

"Stop shooting at him!" Jazz berated her parents.

Ignoring her daughter, Maddie told her husband, "We need to get up there."

"To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!" Jack proclaimed before ambling up the stairs.

Maddie almost followed, but quickly stopped herself. "Danny!" she remembered. "He's still in the portal!"

The clueless mother didn't see Jazz's adoption of utter annoyance cross her face. "I'll wait for him to come out," she suggested passively.

"Oh, thank you, sweetie!" Maddie said exuberantly. "You two stay down here in the lab and keep safe. Close the portal as soon as Danny comes back," she ordered, then ran to catch up with her husband, weapon still in hand.

Jazz rolled her eyes. "'I'll tell them later,'" she mocked to herself in a deep voice as she made her way over to the portal's console. "I love you, Brother, but sometimes you are so full of it."

The portal closed when she pressed her thumb onto the scanner. Jazz then calmly walked over to a large storage cabinet and opened it to grab a couple thermoses.

Facing Skulker, she sighed and said, "Time to get to work."

* * *

**EEEEEK things are happening! Finally got some one-on-one with Danny and his parents as both Fenton and Phantom. Writing both scenarios in the same chapter was fun ;) And Phantom is finally here! None of this was in my original outline - the whole thing had to be scrapped because it was too choppy...this is a little better...hopefully :(**

**My college classes start on Monday...I'm so sorry I wasn't able to get more than one chapter out to you this week! I don't know how intense this semester will be, but I'll use all my free time to write out these final chapters for you. They'll be worth the any wait I PROMISE. And they're pretty well panned because I'm super excited to write them, so don't worry too much!**

**Once again, thank you for the fantastic reviews from last chapter! SO MANY! Please review again with your thoughts/idea/reactions! Love you guys!**


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